Category Archives: Syria

Begum lawyer says legal ploy could stop her return to Britain

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Citizenship appeal for UK Isis teenager being ‘deliberately delayed’

Shamima Begum’s attempt to overturn the decision to revoke her UK citizenship is being deliberately delayed, according to her lawyers, to give police time to charge the former Islamic State member with a terrorism offence.

Almost six months have passed since Begum lodged an appeal against the decision, by the former home secretary, Sajid Javid. Yet the 19-year-old, who joined Isis aged 15 and remains in Syria, is still waiting for a date to be set with the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), which adjudicates on cases where the home secretary has revoked someone’s nationality on grounds of national security.

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Syria: new Idlib clashes sow ‘total panic’ among civilians, UN says

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Senior official says government offensive would be ‘playing with fire’ after truce collapses

Fresh fighting around Syria’s jihadi-controlled enclave of Idlib has triggered “total panic” among civilians in recent days, according to a senior UN official who warned that a feared government offensive in the area was “playing with fire”.

The renewed violence, which followed the breakdown of a brief ceasefire, came as international concern about Syria mounts. The British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said on Thursday that he was appalled by the deteriorating situation in the enclave, which is home to about 3 million people.

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Syria safe zone plan may just be wishful thinking

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Lack of detail and strong opposition from Kurds means plan is unlikely to provide solution to region’s problems

The announcement by Turkey and the US that they will set up a safe zone in Kurdish-run north-eastern Syria allays fears of an imminent Turkish incursion into the country, but will strain Washington’s ties with a force that helped defeat Islamic State.

The announcement came as Ankara was finalising a troop buildup along its southern border, which it shares with Syrian Kurds. On Sunday, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had threatened to invade within the next fortnight, creating a conundrum for Washington, which views both the Turks and the Kurds as allies and has increasingly struggled to keep them from conflict.

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Don’t call them Syria’s child casualties. This is the slaughter of the innocents

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As violence escalates, more children have died in rebel-held areas in the past month than in all of 2018. But does anybody care?

Murdered children are no longer news. International media coverage of the war in Afghanistan, where child deaths reached an all-time high last year, is sporadic at best. In Yemen it is estimated that at least 85,000 under-fives have died of starvation since 2015, a figure that numbs the mind. In Syria, especially, it is hard to keep count because children are being killed almost every day – and who is really counting?

Harrowing images briefly capture public attention. One of the more recent showed five-year-old Riham struggling amid the rubble of her bombed home in Ariha, in Syria’s north-western Idlib province, to save her baby sister, Tuqa. Riham died later in hospital along with her mother and another sister. Thanks to her efforts, and White Helmet rescuers, Tuqa survived.

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New wave of terrorist attacks possible before end of year, UN says

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UN report warns threat from Islamist extremist groups remains high

The United Nations has warned that a recent pause in international terrorist violence may soon end, with a new wave of attacks possible before the end of the year.

In a report, specialist monitors at the UN security council paint a worrying picture of a global Islamist extremist movement that continues to pose a significant threat despite recent setbacks.

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Syrian refugees in Beirut and Istanbul detained and deported

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Lives put at risk as thousands face forcible return to warzones under air attack

Countries neighbouring the still rumbling Syrian war are rounding up hundreds of workers and sending many back to volatile parts of the country, raising fears of mass deportations that will imperil large numbers of refugees.

Syrians living in Istanbul and Beirut have been targeted by immigration authorities in recent weeks, with more than 1,000 detained in Turkey’s biggest city last weekend and given 30 days to leave.

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Erdoğan is on a lonely path to ruin. Will he take Turkey down with him? | Simon Tisdall

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At odds with the US, Europe, his Arab neighbours and potentially Russia, too, the president is also increasingly unpopular at home

For a reputed “strongman”, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seems unusually nervous these days. A bombastic speech last week marking the third anniversary of a failed military putsch could not conceal his insecurity. He says he is using his sweeping powers as executive president to build a “new Turkey”. But it appears the old one is tiring of him fast.

“The 15th of July was an attempt to subject our nation to slavery,” Erdoğan declared. “But as much as we will never stop protecting our freedom and our future, those who lay traps for us will never cease their efforts.” It was a typical pitch, blending nationalism with scare stories of secret foes, foreign and domestic.

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Rose seeds from Syria: the refugee family cultivating a new life | Jenny Gustafsson

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Sweet-smelling success for Syrians who have settled in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley is dampened by growing anti-Syrian sentiment

When the plastic bucket is filled with roses, Nahla al-Zarda takes it into the kitchen, where she separates the petals from the buds. She soaks them in boiling water, which blushes pink.

“I love this colour. It will be even stronger when the drink is ready,” she says.

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Rebuilding Aleppo: ‘We cannot preserve the place but we can save our memories’

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Thousands of Aleppians are using a Facebook group to share their way of life before the Syrian war

Going to the hammam was once a beloved ritual for Aleppo resident Atef Shikhouni and his friends. Recalling the boisterous, joyful experience, the 55-year-old wrote: “Here is a man shouting, ‘Where is the soap?’ while another one is asking for the shampoo and a third wants someone to rub his back. It becomes very noisy. After spending some time in the sauna, it is time for the ‘rubbing man’. He uses a rough loofah to rub my body mercilessly and I pray it will end without any damage.”

But that was before the outbreak of war in Syria. “Today, the bath is cold and has no soul,” the sports teacher wrote in February 2017, shortly after the worst of the fighting in Aleppo had ended. “Cruel are our days, exactly like our bath today.”

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The Syrian refugees changing the UK’s food scene

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Mohamad Rahimeh found a talent for cooking in the Calais refugee camp. Now he has a viable business in London

When Mohamad Rahimeh arrived in the Calais refugee camp that was nicknamed “the Jungle”, cooking was the last thing on his mind. He was a political scientist from Syria with a journey from hell behind him. Food was just a means to an end.

But when a close friend fell sick, he rustled up a meal of eggs. A hidden talent was uncovered.

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Syrian teenager left suffering in Athens by UK Home Office ‘failure’

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Unaccompanied Syrian fell into despair after waiting more than six months for response to application

A Syrian teenager left suicidal after the Home Office failed to respond to his application to join his family in Britain is finally set to be reunited with his loved ones.

On Thursday, after the Guardian contacted the Home Office, Moustafa’s lawyers were told that his case had been approved and he would be brought to the UK from Athens, where he has been living for a year, as soon as possible.

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Syrians are watching crops burn. These starvation crimes must end | Mohammad Kanfash and Ali al-Jasem

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Amid a war that may have cost 500,000 lives, we must hold the Syrian government and others to account for the use of hunger as a weapon

In 2017, we started an agricultural project to help hundreds of families survive the blockade by the Assad government, as part of the Damaan Humanitarian Organization’s programme to support civilians in besieged eastern ghouta in Syria.

The project not only provided sustenance to the besieged population, it offered employment opportunities for many people.

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At least 544 civilians killed in Russian-led assault in Syria, rights groups say

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Syrian Network for Human Rights says two-month offensive has left 130 children dead

At least 544 civilians have been killed and over 2,000 people injured since a Russian-led assault on the last rebel bastion in north-western Syria began two months ago, according to rights groups and rescuers.

Russian jets joined the Syrian army on 26 April in the biggest offensive against parts of rebel-held Idlib province and adjoining northern Hama provinces in the biggest escalation in the war between the Syrian president, Bashar al Assad, and his enemies since last summer.

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Iran fury as Royal Marines seize tanker suspected of carrying oil to Syria

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Iran summons UK ambassador over incident off Gibraltar as tensions escalate over nuclear deal

Royal Marines have helped seize an Iranian supertanker suspected of carrying oil to Syria off the coast of Gibraltar, escalating tensions between the UK and Tehran as the agreement aimed at halting Iran’s nuclear programme unravels.

A detachment of nearly 30 British troops working with the Gibraltarian police intercepted the vessel, believed to be carrying 2m barrels of oil, in a dramatic manoeuvre Spain said had been conducted at the request of the US.

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Syria accuses Israel of ‘heinous aggression’ after airstrikes

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Syria accuses Israel of ‘practising state terrorism’ after strikes reported to have killed at least 15 people

Syria has accused Israel of “heinous aggression” after alleged Israeli airstrikes killed several civilians.

“Israeli authorities are increasingly practising state terrorism,” the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official Sana news agency on Tuesday. “The latest heinous Israeli aggression falls within the framework of ongoing Israeli attempts to prolong the crisis in Syria,” it added.

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Stray missile from Syria-Israel clash lands in Cyprus – video

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A stray missile has exploded in mid-air over villages in northern Cyprus, thought to have been fired by Syrian forces in response to an Israeli attack. Hours after the projectile struck the area at about 1am local time (11pm BST) debris was still being discovered in Turkish Cypriot villages

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Syrian refugees forced to destroy their own homes in Lebanon

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Demolition ordered by military leaves 5,000 families homeless again, says charity

Syrian refugees in Lebanon are being forced to tear down their own homes in the face of an aggressive new campaign by the Lebanese authorities to pressure refugees into returning home.

In the border town of Arsal, informal settlements that house 55,000 refugees were the scene of frantic activity under the hot summer sun on Friday as young men took apart the breeze-block homes with pickaxes, hammers and drills, covering the ground in rubble and dust.

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Faces of war: Kurdistan’s armed struggle against Islamic State

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Since March 2015, the photographer and author Joey Lawrence has had unprecedented access to Kurdish guerrilla organisations fighting Isis, embedding himself into the Iraq and Syrian civil war. His powerful portraits of the fighters give a different perspective to the conflict

We came from fire, and we will return to fire

The war against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has flooded our daily news with troubling statistics of massacres and mass migrations, yet there are faces and human stories at the heart of the conflict. Joey L wrote: “From Iraq, one crosses the Tigris River into war-torn Syria, and is catapulted into a worldview crafted by the guerrilla.”

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