Dear Deeply Readers,
Welcome to the archives of Syria Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on May 15, 2018, and transitioned some of our coverage to Peacebuilding Deeply, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on the Syrian conflict. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors contributors.
We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].
Exploring the government in Syria, including the Baath Party and the Assad family’s inner circle, and the various foreign and domestic forces fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad.
Follow via RSSAs a regular feature, inspired by your questions about the Syria conflict, we’ve rounded up answers from some of the top minds in our network. If you’d like to submit a question for us to tackle send it to <[email protected]>
CAIRO – Last year, Omar Haidar arrived in Egypt. As bombs rattled entire neighborhoods, the 26-year old hotel manager fled his family’s village in the hard-hit suburbs of Damascus.
On April 25, 2011, a man held up a video camera in Deraa. He was not an experienced videographer and he did not have a tripod.He stood in front of a group of Syrian army soldiers with tanks and filmed them shooting their machine guns towards civilian targets. Each time he watched the clip on his laptop, he noticed the footage was shaky due to his trembling hand, so he would go back to his exposed vantage point to film once more.
Aleppo—First Lieutenant Adnan Barazi, 27, was stationed with Special Forces at Jabal al Sheikh along the Israeli border before the Syrian revolution, defending the frontlines against Syria’s main enemy. A Kurd who grew up in Homs, he was transferred to Jabal al Zawya in Idlib in October 2011 to aid in the crackdown on opponents of the Assad regime.
Karl Sharro
Karl Sharro is a Syria Deeply columnist, London-based architect and Middle East commentator. He blogs at the wildly popular karlremarks.com and Tweets @KarlreMarks.
As part of our ongoing effort to talk to journalists covering the Syria crisis, we reached out to Jenan Moussa, a correspondent with Al Aan TV. Just back from conflict-torn Mali, the Dubai-based Moussa has made seven trips to Syria and covered most major events in the Middle East over the past two years. Here, she discusses “overwhelming” Syria and covering the war for an Arab outlet. “When I have to go to Syria, the excitement disappears, there’s this grip of fear,” she says. “No matter how prepared you are, you cannot be prepared enough.”.
Below is a conversation with a fighter who said he would be defecting from the Syrian Army the following day. We speak at a house in the Latakia mountains, where FSA fighters have gathered for dinner.
For two years Salamiyeh, the Ismaili-majority city 20 miles east of Hama, has skirted much of the violence unleashed on its neighbors despite hosting large anti-government protests. It’s created an environment of political tolerance that differs from Assad regime strongholds and territories held by rebels.
Dozens of bodies, some in mass graves and others in shallow ones, have been discovered at Aleppo’s Infantry School, located just north of the city that fell into rebel control in December.
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week Syria Deeply monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
Barak Barfi Research Fellow, New America Foundation
Barak Barfi is a Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, where he specializes in Arab and Islamic affairs. He recently returned from Aleppo. Barak writes often for publications including The International Herald Tribune, The New Republic, the Washington Post, Foreign Policy and The Atlantic, and is a regular guest on CNN, Fox News Channel, France 24 and other international networks. He is based between the U.S. and the Middle East.
Samir Aita is a member of the Syrian Democratic Forum, and editor-in-chief of Le Monde Diplomatique Arabic edition. Here, he discusses the collapse of the Syrian economy and the financial situation of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Phil Sands
This is the first cross-post between News Deeply and The National, the government-owned English-language newspaper in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Phil Sands has been the paper’s Syria correspondent for four years. Here, he paints a picture of Damascus – a city on the edge.
Karl Sharro
Karl Sharro is a London-based architect and Middle East commentator. He blogs at the wildly popular karlremarks.com and Tweets @KarlreMarks.
As part of our series of interviews with journalists covering the Syria crisis, we reached out to Miriam Elder of The Guardian. Elder, the newspaper’s Moscow correspondent, discusses Russian media’s coverage of the war in Syria, its longtime ally. “The last report I can remember seeing from Syria,” she says, “was at the beginning of September.”.
Taufiq Rahim
Taufiq Rahim is a Dubai-based political analyst and strategist. He is the Director of Globesight, a strategic advisory firm for organizations working in the MENA region. He is regular contributor to print, TV, and online media and blogs on TheGeopolitico.com. You can follow Taufiq on Twitter @TheGeoPolitico.
Mark Katz
Professor Mark Katz, PhD, is a professor of Russian and Soviet politics at George Mason University and a leading voice on Russian-Arab relations. He’s a former Soviet analyst for the State Department, onetime Brookings fellow and the author of numerous books on Soviet policies in the Arab world.
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week Syria Deeply monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
The group Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medicins Sans Frontiere, delivers emergency medical services in Syria’s crisis. On Saturday they said that growing insecurity in Aleppo is weakening efforts to provide those services. They sent over these notes from the field.
The drive from Al Sultan Selim al Woal Battalions house in Turkman to the little girl’s house in Akrad takes about 90 minutes on a good day. On those days, you have to pull off the road only once to avoid a passing helicopter. At various points, the roads are rocketed out, fresh craters filled with mud that scrape the car.
Lionel Beehner
Lionel Beehner is a fellow at the Truman National Security Project, and former senior writer at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is currently a PhD student at Yale, where he focuses on civil wars and non-state actors in the Middle East. Lioneel has reported from Syria several times for the New York Times as well. .
As part of our effort to highlight civilian stories, below is a conversation between Syria Deeply and an architecture student from the University of Aleppo. She is in her final year and working on her graduation project. This conversation predates the latest blast at the university’s architecture school. Luckily, she was absent on Tuesday, January 15, the day of the tragic incident. At her request, we are not disclosing her name. The text has been edited for clarity.
Bradley Bosserman
Bradley Bosserman is a policy analyst at NDN and the New Policy Institute, where he directs the Middle East and North Africa Initiative. He lives on Twitter as: @BradEEB.
Azaz, Syria—Fighters of the Kurdish Saladin Brigade greet visitors with marhaba, hello, rather than the Islamic salam alikum. They lack the bushy beards that mark the more conservative Muslims who fight alongside them in the battlefields.
The battle around Damascus has grown fierce as the regime strives to take back suburbs around the capital city that have fallen into rebel hands. It is a vital showdown in the political survival of President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week our Mohammed Sergie monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
Below is a conversation between News Deeply and a 20-year-old man who defected from the Syrian Army’s Sulas Military Base and joined the rebel side. At his request, we will not use his name in this article.
Rural Idlib, Syria–Adel and Ahmad, two 24-year-old college graduates from Idlib, are survivors of a showdown between the rebels and the regime. When the battle began for a military school near Aleppo, they were inside, serving time in the Syrian Army.
Michel Kilo is one of Syria’s famous dissidents, a political opponent of President Bashar al Assad. He rose to prominence in the Damascus Spring, a brief flourishing of political freedom and expression in 2000.Kilo left Syria eight months into the revolution and now lives in Paris with his family. He answered questions from Syria Deeply via Skype. For more on his story we’ve included a link to a video interview about his time in prison, jailed for his prominent political dissent.
Maaret Misreen, Syria–Omar, a former marketing student at a private university in Damascus, is living a life he never could have imagined. He’s originally from Idlib, one of Syria’s smaller cities in the heart of the northwest olive groves.
As the world celebrated the dawn of 2013, in Syria, the regime and the rebels were fighting for the suburbs of Damascus. President Bashar al Assad’s reportedly launched air raids that struck across the country, killing at least 160 people. Aleppo’s International Airport shut down, said AFP, reportedly after a rebel assault. The bottom line: more deadly fighting, with neither side really able to take control.
Mohammed Sergie
Mohammed Aly Sergie is the Senior Editor at Syria Deeply. He previously reported on private equity deals for Dow Jones in New York and established a bureau for the news service in Saudi Arabia. He grew up in Aleppo, Syria.
As part of our effort to highlight civilian stories, below is a conversation between News Deeply and Ayesha, a 29-year-old woman living in the Atma refugee camp in Idleb Province. She is one of an estimated 50 pregnant women in the camp; volunteers tell us there’s an acute need for baby milk. .
As part of our effort to highlight civilian stories, below is a conversation between Syria Deeply and a tradesman in Aleppo. He hasn’t been able to reach his shop since August because it’s on the frontline between government held areas and rebel controlled neighborhoods.
Patrick Hilsman
Patrick Hilsman currently works for Transterra media and is a contributor to Syria Deeply. Patrick graduated from Columbia University where he studied Political Science.He recently appeared on BBC from Aleppo as a Syria Deeply contributor. .
Jabhat Al Nusra, now a U.S.-designated terrorist group believed to have links with Al Qaeda, still wins fans in Syria for its disciplined, ferocious fighters. It is considered the most effective fighting force against the Assad regime, and its latest film highlighting attacks in and around Aleppo seeks to bolster that reputation.
Even as the Assad regime loses control of Syria’s countryside, and Russia shifts its stance, verbally weakening support for Bashar al Assad himself, it may not signal the end, says analyst Ayham Kamel of Eurasia Group.
A diplomatic source sent us a draft of the Friends of Syria conclusion, what would be the end result of this meeting in Marrakech. It includes, at least in this version, some very clear wording about “the legitimate need for the Syrian people to defend themselves.”.
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week our Mohammed Sergie monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
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