Brutal winter, poor healthcare and limited food raises fears for welfare of infant, born to Sydney woman Rayan Hamdoush
An Australian woman has given birth to a baby boy in the al-Hawl camp in Syria, prompting revived calls for Australia to rescue 67 nationals still held in the camp.
Rayan Hamdoush, 24, from western Sydney, was pregnant when she entered al-Hawl. She gave birth to the boy on 30 November. The boy’s father, Samer Hajj Obeid, also from Sydney, is missing.
Continue reading...This powerful, immensely moving documentary follows the courageous medical staff who must treat injured children as bombs fall around them
Feras Fayyad, the young Syrian documentary-maker who filmed Last Men in Aleppo (and was himself imprisoned and tortured by Bashar al-Assad’s regime), returns with a chilling, shaming film made over two years inside a Syrian hospital in Ghouta, the city besieged by the Syrian government for five years until 2018.
If there is a chink of hope here it’s Amani Ballour, the hospital’s manager, a paediatrician in her late 20s. “I know this life is tough. But it’s honest,” she says. Her deep sense of purpose is humbling – it carries her through hellish days treating dozens of bloodied and badly injured children. Her gentleness with patients is desperately moving, too.
Continue reading...Technology of deploying drones in squadrons is in its infancy, but armed forces are investing millions in its development
As evening fell on Russia’s Khmeimim airbase in western Syria, the first drones appeared. Then more, until 13 were flashing on radars, speeding towards the airbase and a nearby naval facility.
The explosives-armed aircraft were no trouble for Russian air defences, which shot down seven and jammed the remaining six, according to the country’s defence ministry. But the failed attack in January last year was disturbing to close observers of drone warfare.
Continue reading...French president is rebuked by Trump over Nato criticism after row with Turkey about Kurds
Nato disunity was on full display on the opening day of the alliance’s summit in London as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, accused Turkey of colluding with Islamic State proxies while Donald Trump described Macron’s criticisms of Nato’s “brain death” as insulting and “very, very nasty”.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for his part threatened again to veto Nato’s defence plan for the Baltics unless Nato endorsed its own assessment that Syrian Kurdish fighters on Turkey’s borders were terrorists, a definition that Macron and the Pentagon rejected.
Continue reading...The chronicle of an activist who filmed the destruction in Aleppo wins prizes for best film, documentary, director and editing
For Sama, the acclaimed documentary about life under siege in the Syrian city of Aleppo, has unexpectedly triumphed at the British independent film awards, winning the top prize, best British independent film, as well as best documentary and best director for Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts.
Described by the Guardian’s Mike McCahill as a film to “break your heart and sear your soul”, For Sama is a chronicle filmed by Syrian activist-director al-Kateab as Aleppo is targeted during the country’s ongoing civil war. Al-Kateab spends much of the time in a hospital where her husband, Hamza, works, recording the destruction and horror. For Sama won a total of four Bifas, including best editing – previously announced with other Bifa “craft” awards on 15 November.
Continue reading...Humanitarian organisation says policy is not helping bring clarity or peace to Syria
The head of the international Red Cross has sharply criticised Britain’s policy of stripping the citizenship of people held in Syria after the fall of Islamic State, saying it is “not conducive” to long-term peace in the region.
Related: Rescue of all 60 children of the ‘caliphate’ urged as winter nears
Continue reading...Newly released drone footage shows the destruction caused to towns and cities in Syria during the nearly nine-year civil war. The aerial footage from October, provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross, shows the extent of the damage to buildings, homes and streets in Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor and rural Damascus
UK-based manufacturer supplied crucial missile component to Turkish drone-maker during development stage
Turkey was able to circumvent a US export ban on killer drones with the help of a missile component first developed in the UK, allowing Ankara to become an emerging power in the lethal technology, which experts warn is dangerously proliferating.
The vital assistance from a factory in Brighton has helped Turkey on its way to become the second biggest user of armed drones in the world – one of a number of countries emulating methods first used by the US in its “war on terror”.
Continue reading...Whistleblower claims OPCW’s findings misrepresented some facts over 2018 chlorine attack
The head of the world’s chemical weapons watchdog has defended its conclusion that chlorine was used in an attack in Syria in April 2018, after a whistleblower alleged the report misrepresented some of the facts amid Russian claims that the watchdog is being politicised by the west.
WikiLeaks at the weekend published an email from a member of the fact-finding team that investigated the attack which accused the body of altering the original findings of investigators to make evidence of a chemical attack seem more conclusive.
Continue reading...Turmoil in Baghdad, paralysis in Beirut and flames of unrest in Tehran; it has been a bad few months for Iran at home and elsewhere in the Middle East, where more than a decade of advances are being slowed, not by manoeuvrings on battlefields or legislatures – but the force of protest movements.
Early last week, Iran went dark for four days by closing its internet connections down. Even for the country’s autocratic leadership, this was a drastic step. But such are the stakes for a regime that is increasingly facing obstacles across its hubs of Shia influence. And those who laud Iran’s rise, as well as those who fear it, sense it is at a loss over how to respond.
Continue reading...Homes for all the 60 British children still stranded in north-east Syria have been found in the UK as councils and relatives of the minors step forward to offer sanctuary, sources have revealed.
So far, three British orphans have arrived home and are understood to have been made temporary wards of court, but will not be placed into care after UK relatives contacted the Foreign Office and said that they wanted to house them.
Continue reading...Home Office unhappy with Foreign Office for potentially opening door to more Isis returnees
No other British children are expected to be repatriated from Syria in the foreseeable future, despite the announcement from the foreign secretary on Thursday that a small number of orphans who had been caught up in the conflict with Islamic State had been brought home.
Home Office officials view the repatriation of the children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as highly exceptional – and there is unhappiness with the Foreign Office for potentially opening the door to more Islamic State returnees.
Continue reading...Special repatriation prompts calls for ministers to allow all British children to return
Britain has taken the step of repatriating a small number of orphaned children from north-east Syria who had been caught up in the conflict with Islamic State, the foreign secretary has announced.
Dominic Raab said the UK government had assisted their return from the war-torn country in a special repatriation that prompted calls for ministers to go further and allow all British children stranded in Syria to come back.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has insisted that the US military presence in Syria is “only for the oil”, contradicting his own officials who have insisted that the remaining forces were there to fight Isis.
Related: Donald Trump says US military presence in Syria 'only for the oil' – live
Continue reading...Alleged militant deported as part of Turkey’s drive to expel foreign jihadists in its custody
An alleged American member of Islamic State, stranded for a second day on the border between Greece and Turkey after Turkey expelled him, is “not our problem”, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said.
The man, named by the Turkish news agency Demiroren as Muhammed Darwis B, is believed to be a US citizen of Jordanian descent. He was deported on Monday as part of Turkey’s controversial new policy to deport foreign jihadists in its custody.
Continue reading...Commander killed in Gaza and political leader targeted in Syria, in sudden surge of violence
Related: Israel-Hamas relations: a predictable but fatal dance
Israel has launched airstrikes against two senior figures from the militant group Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Syria, in rare targeted assassination attempts that immediately prompted rounds of retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza.
Continue reading...James Le Mesurier, who set up Syrian rescue group, reportedly found with injuries near home
The British founder of the organisation that trained the Syrian rescue group known as the White Helmets has died in Istanbul.
A spokesman for the White Helmets confirmed on Monday afternoon the death of James Le Mesurier and said further details were yet to be established.
Continue reading...About 500 or 600 US troops will remain in Syria to counter Islamic State, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Sunday.
Related: 'Secure the oil': Trump's Syria strategy leaves Pentagon perplexed
Continue reading...Ilham Ahmed says Britain unwilling to offend Ankara fearing post-Brexit isolation
The leader of the Syrian Kurd civilian government has accused Britain of being almost invisible in its condemnation of the Turkish invasion in Syria, saying the UK appeared unwilling to offend Ankara because it feared isolation after leaving the European Union.
Ilham Ahmed, the president of the Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces, criticised Donald Trump’s decision to give the green light to the Turkish invasion of north-east Syria as a historic crime that will leave the US struggling for allies across the Middle East unless Congress can force the US president to change his thinking quickly.
Continue reading...Interior minister said repatriation of alleged terrorists would include those rendered stateless
Turkey will begin deporting foreign members of Islamic State in Turkish custody back to their home countries from next week, the country’s interior minister has said.
Ankara has repeatedly criticised European nations for refusing to take back any of the 1,200 foreign nationals currently held in Turkish prisons on suspicion of links to the terror organisation.
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