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 various groups in Syria opposed to the Syrian government, including rebel factions, extremist groups and political parties.
Follow via RSS
For the past two years, rebels in the northern Aleppo town of Marea have repeatedly fought off attempts by the so-called Islamic State to take control of the area. Last week saw them successfully break the group’s siege and force it to withdraw.
Haid Haid Syrian Researcher
While rumors abound about al-Nusra Front’s desire to create an Islamic emirate in Syria, the al-Qaida affiliate isn’t likely to do so any time soon, argues Syrian analyst Haid Haid.
If the war against the so-called Islamic State group is ever to be successful, our tactics must go beyond military ones, says French journalist and former ISIS captive Nicolas Henin.
A month-long struggle between the two leading factions in the besieged suburb of Eastern Ghouta in Damascus ended last week when the parties agreed to a cease-fire. However, the dispute raises questions over the rule of Jaish al-Islam, the leading faction in the area.
As ISIS swept over large swathes of the eastern province, former FSA fighter Abu Khadija pledged his allegiance, believing the extremists were his best bet to topple the Assad government. Now, after escaping, he wishes he could take it all back.
Reporting from Syria’s opposition-held areas is dangerous work, according to local journalists on the ground, who say they’ve been censored and intimidated by rebel factions across the country.
Demonstrations in support of civilians beaing heavy shelled by the government in the rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo spread to 27 cities across the globe over the weekend.
Local and international NGOs are calling for an immediate end to the escalation in fighting in Syria’s divided northern city, where violence has risen to levels not seen in months and civilian centers like hospitals, mosques and bakeries have been targeted.
Government airstrikes on the opposition-held neighborhoods of Aleppo have targeted hospitals, mosques, bakeries and rescue workers over the past week, as violence in the city escalates to levels not seen in months.
Kenan Rahmani, a Syrian American political and human rights activist and a member of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, touches on the major failures of the steadily collapsing cessation of hostilities agreement. He recently returned from a trip to Syria in March.
“Why is war coming after us?” asked one 13-year-old Syrian boy now living in the Turkish border city of Kilis. Having fled to Turkey in search of safety, many Syrian refugees are not yet out of ISIS’s reach.
After repelling an offensive led by two hard-line Islamist groups thought to have ties to ISIS, rebels outside the southern city of Daraa are preparing to “finish off” what they see as a possible ISIS attempt to open another front in the war-torn country.
Members of an underground activist network named “Deir Ezzor is Being Slaughtered Silently” have scoured government and ISIS-controlled territories across the oil-rich province and discovered 36 mass graves – allegedly the grisly work of extremist militants and government forces.
Backstreet doctors in the border town of Reyhanli and elsewhere in southern Turkey are caring for injured rebel fighters. Funded by armed opposition groups, the network of underground hospitals is patching up militants and sending them back to fight.
Jabal Turkman in northern Latakia has been a battlefield since the beginning of the Syrian conflict. But this past week, the last remaining villagers fled, leaving more than 20 villages abandoned. Turkmen villagers now worry the Assad government will attempt to repopulate the mountain with loyalists.
Violence, poverty and displacement have affected millions of Syrian children, sometimes forcing them to become the sole providers for their households. In the besieged Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, many are forgoing their education and turning to the streets to help support their families.
Frederic C. Hof Director, Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East
“To date the Obama administration’s idea of Syrians fighting ISIS out of love of country has centered on the Syrian Army and nationalist rebels eventually linking arms and marching eastward after Bashar al-Assad has obligingly retired … ” writes Frederic C. Hof. “It is a nice image, but when exactly is this supposed to happen?”.
The series #5YearsWeFled is a collection of interviews with a Syrian lawyer Ayman Jalwan. It highlights the difficult choice that Syrians face – between dying in a war zone that the country has become after five years or conflict, or fleeing the land they love with no hopes of imminent return.
The dangerous sea and land crossings that Syrian refugees are making to Europe have been well-documented, but less well known are the equally perilous journeys people take to leave Syria itself. In this first installment of a two-part series, Syria Deeply examines the illegal journey from Damascus to Turkey.
Jaish al-Islam’s leader Zahran Alloush was killed by Syrian government airstrikes last year, but his successors are keeping his brutal legacy alive in Eastern Ghouta. Syria Deeply spoke to residents and former prisoners of the “Army of Islam” about the group’s severe punishment of dissent.
The series #5YearsWeFled is a collection of interviews with a Syrian lawyer Ayman Jalwan. It highlights the difficult choice that Syrians face – between dying in a war zone that the country has become after five years of conflict, or fleeing the land they love with no hopes of imminent return.
Ali Melhem Contributor, Rozana Radio
There’s growing hostility between al-Qaida’s branch in Syria and the locals of Idlib. After attempting to disrupt popular protests in the streets of Maarat al-Numan last week, the insurgent group then pushed a popular branch of the Free Syrian Army out of town.
Ameenah A. Sawwan Syrian Advocate and Human Rights Activist
Ameenah Sawwan, a Syria advocate and human-rights activist, reflects on five years of war since the uprising in Syria began in March 2011, and the recent resurgence of popular protests across the country in what some have deemed the second blossoming of the Syrian spring.
Mohammad Othman Freelance Journalist
While the two-week truce in Syria has allowed for the resumption of peace talks in Geneva, if Russia and the United States do not act now to pressure both sides to agree on a transitional government, they may risk losing their last opportunity at a negotiated settlement.
With the Syrian conflict entering a sixth year, at least 250,000 children are struggling for access to food, electricity and life-saving medicine due to sieges by the warring sides. Those who manage to flee lack adequate protection despite being the most vulnerable among refugees. This story introduces our series “Lost Childhoods”.
Osama Nassar Syrian Human Rights Activist, Eastern Ghouta
Five years ago, human rights activist Osama Nassar witnessed and then started taking part in the protests and violent government response that sparked Syria’s war. Since then, he and his family have been arrested, intimidated and forced underground. He told Amnesty International their story.
Although the cease-fire in Syria has ostensibly held for the past two weeks, pro-government forces and Russian warplanes have continued to target rebel groups across the country, violations that clarify Bashar al-Assad’s strategy and the trajectory for the peace talks in Geneva.
The U.S.-Russian brokered truce remains deeply controversial among rebels. Hardline jihadis have condemned the peace process, while more pragmatic Islamists have endorsed it. Now, a jihadi crackdown on demonstrators in rebel-held Idlib is testing the alliance between two of the insurgency’s most powerful factions.
Ali Melhem Contributor, Rozana Radio
After nearly five years of civil war, the temporary cease-fire has brought a return of popular protests to Syria’s streets. But now that civil society is finally back, writes Ali Melhem, it is time for activists to rethink past mistakes and speak out against the Islamist groups that kidnapped the spirit of the uprising.
The internationally brokered cease-fire had a rocky start. While the first 24 hours passed relatively quietly, Russian and Syrian government air strikes picked up again on Sunday, with airplanes targeting towns and villages controlled by the Free Syrian Army across the country’s north.
As pro-government forces surround the city of Aleppo, medical workers are stocking up on supplies in anticipation of an impending siege. Syria Deeply spoke to one of them, Dr. Rami Kalazi, about the health situation in opposition-held areas and the challenges of being a doctor in a besieged area.
Thomas Schmidinger Political Scientist, University of Vienna
Whoever controls the Azaz corridor will very likely control the war in northern Syria, writes Thomas Schmidinger. As things come to a head in northern Aleppo, the race is on between the SDF, Turkey and pro-government forces as to who will take control of the strategic strip of land.
Despite five years of war, several stints in government detention centers and a near-constant fear of being “disappeared,” one woman in Damascus has not given up on the Syrian uprising, transitioning from activist to citizen journalist and committing herself to covering ongoing human rights abuses.
Pro-government forces are pushing to seal off the last northern rebel stronghold from its only supply routes, a siege on Aleppo city looks imminent, and the temporary cease-fire set to begin at the end of the week looks increasingly unlikely to happen. But has the war reached a turning point?
The Russian-supported onslaught on the city of Aleppo and surrounding countryside has forced more than 50,000 people to flee their homes and head north to the Turkish border. But as the border remains closed and the weather gets colder, Syria’s displaced are stranded with nowhere to go.
Marah, a teenage girl from one of Syria’s besieged cities, has been sharing her stories of life in the war. With her mother and siblings, she left Syria, stopping off in Turkey before making the precarious crossing to Greece by boat. Now in Switzerland, she recounts events in a new country.
Syria expert Aron Lund picks six reads you probably haven’t come across before – on subjects including authoritarian counterinsurgency tactics, the key forces behind conflict before 2011, the divisions likely to make the Geneva peace talks fail and life as a gay soldier in Assad’s army.
The siege of Madaya began in July 2015, but global pressure on the Syrian government to allow humanitarian access didn’t begin to build until nearly 30 people had died of starvation. Why did it take so long and why was aid only delivered once during the first six months of the siege?
In the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor, ISIS militants and the Syrian government are battling for control of the capital. As violence between the two sides continues to escalate, residents in the government-held areas of the city must fight to survive under what they call “a double blockade”.
While aid groups did finally manage last week to deliver much-needed food and medicine to three besieged communities, muddy roads nearly rendered the entire operation a failure. But slick roads are nothing compared to the mountain of obstacles aid organizations must overcome to do their job in Syria.
Have a story idea? Interested in adding your voice to our growing community?
Learn more