An Israeli interception of a Syrian missile was caught on a snowboarder's camera from the snowy slopes of Mount Hermon on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Israel's military said its Iron Dome interceptor system shot down a rocket fired at the northern part of the occupied Golan Heights on the Syria frontier on Sunday.
Continue reading...Category Archives: Syria
Israeli military strikes Iranian targets inside Syria
In a very unusual move, military issues a statement about attack and warns Syrian forces not to retaliate
Israel’s military has said it struck Iranian Quds targets inside Syria and warned Syrian forces not to attack Israeli territory or forces.
Syrian state media cited a Syrian military source as saying Israel launched an “intense attack through consecutive waves of guided missiles”, but that Syrian air defences destroyed most of the “hostile targets”.
Continue reading...America is retreating from world affairs and circling the wagons…
For all its rhetoric, the US under Donald Trump is on a clear path of disengagement in international matters
America’s ambivalence about engagement with the world beyond its shores is nothing new. Isolationist instincts are deeply rooted in the national psyche. Large constituencies opposed US involvement in both world wars. Donald Trump’s “America First” campaign was the most recent manifestation of a longstanding desire to avoid the “foreign entanglements” that the first US president, George Washington, warned against in his 1796 farewell address.
Yet, as US power expanded, this yearning for separateness grew increasingly at odds with another national urge – to demonstrate America’s pre-eminence, and propagate its values and interests, through global leadership. This process climaxed in the early 1990s when America’s main rival, the Soviet Union, imploded and the US claimed the mantle of sole superpower.
Continue reading...Syrian girl disfigured by bomb attack refused US visa under Trump travel ban
Exclusive: Marwa al-Shekh Ameen, 16, was denied a visa in December after doctors in Germany encouraged her to get treatment in the US
A 16-year-old Syrian refugee who was disfigured in a bomb attack on her home has been refused a visa to get medical treatment in the US because of Donald Trump’s travel ban, the Guardian can reveal.
Related: Thousands more migrant children separated under Trump than previously known
Continue reading...Anti-Assad activist killed in Germany in suspected axe attack
Mohamed Joune’s killing may be related to his Syrian political activities, say friends
A Syrian activist has died after a brutal attack in Hamburg, raising questions over whether he was targeted for political reasons.
Mohamed Joune, 48, collapsed on the street on Tuesday night after stumbling out of a building. He was bleeding from a severe head wound but still conscious when paramedics rushed him to hospital. He later died from his injuries.
Continue reading...Turkey will not be intimidated by Trump, says foreign minister
Ankara hits back after Trump threatened to ‘economically devastate’ it over Syria
Turkey’s foreign minister has hit back at Donald Trump over his threat to economically devastate the country if it follows through on a planned operation against Kurdish forces in northern Syria, saying Ankara will not be intimidated by its Nato ally.
“We have said repeatedly we are not scared of and will not be intimidated by any threats,” said Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in televised remarks from Ankara on Monday, before rebuking the US president for using Twitter for sensitive diplomatic matters.
Continue reading...‘Real risk’ of refugees freezing to death in Syria after rains destroy shelters
As temperatures fall, aid workers warn of danger to at least 11,000 people across Idlib, with storms also battering camps in Lebanon
At least 11,000 child refugees and their families are facing a weekend of freezing temperatures with no shelter, after torrential rains across Syria’s Idlib province swept away tents and belongings.
Aid workers warn there is a real risk people will simply freeze to death as temperatures have already dropped to -1C, amid a shortage of blankets and heating fuel.
Continue reading...Maggots could be sent to Syria by UK to help clean wounds
The plan is part of an initiative, co-sponsored by the DfID, to help those affected by conflict or humanitarian crises
The UK government is taking part in a pioneering international aid project which could see consignments of maggots sent to crisis zones such as Syria as a simple and effective way to clean wounds, it has been announced.
So-called maggot therapy was been used in the first world war, when their efficacy in helping wounds heal was discovered by accident, and it is sometimes used in the NHS, for example to clean ulcers.
Continue reading...US will expel every last Iranian boot from Syria, says Mike Pompeo
Secretary of state seeks to reassure Middle East that US is not abandoning region
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has vowed the US and its allies will “expel every last Iranian boot” from Syria as he sought to reassure Middle Eastern nations it was not withdrawing from the region despite Donald Trump’s call for troops to return home.
In a keynote speech delivered in Cairo, pitched as the centrepiece of his nine-country regional tour, Pompeo called for a common stand against Tehran. “It’s time for old rivalries to end, for the sake of the greater good of the region,” he said.
Continue reading...Erdoğan chides Bolton and calls on US to hand over Syria bases
US security chief tempers withdrawal claims, jeopardising Turkey’s plans to target Kurdish groups
Turkey has asked Washington to hand over its bases in Syria as the Trump administration appeared to reverse plans to withdraw from the country’s north-east on Tuesday, jeopardising Ankara’s plans to launch a widespread military operation targeting Kurdish groups.
The fresh row between the two Nato allies broke out as the US national security adviser, John Bolton, visited Ankara to row back on a surprise announcement by Donald Trump in December that US forces would leave Syria imminently, abandoning Kurdish proxies who had led its ground war against the Islamic State terror group. Turkey views those same Kurdish groups as mortal foes.
Continue reading...‘You can feel the love’: Syrian who lived in airport on new life in Canada | Kate Hodal
Stranded in arrivals in Kuala Lumpur for eight months, Hassan al-Kontar was granted asylum to make Whistler his home
Hassan al-Kontar has been living in Canada for just under a month. But the Syrian refugee – who made global headlines after becoming stranded in a Malaysian airport for more than eight months in 2018 – is so busy with media requests that he jokes he has only managed to get out into the snow a handful of times.
“It’s very much like living in the airport, all the interviews. But obviously you cannot compare the two of them,” says Kontar, 37. “Whistler is an amazing place. There is nothing but nature, fresh air, wonderful people and beautiful snow.”
Continue reading...Bolton: US troops will not leave Syria till Isis beaten and Kurds protected
Adviser indicates long stay for troops while president claims he never said withdrawal would be quick
US troops will not leave north-eastern Syria until Islamic State militants are defeated and US-allied Kurdish fighters protected, national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday, signaling a pause to a withdrawal abruptly announced last month and initially expected to be completed within weeks. Achieving such conditions will likely take months or even years.
Related: Trump: US has killed al-Qaida militant tied to USS Cole bombing
Continue reading...Two British special forces soldiers injured by Isis in Syria
Attack comes after Trump said he would withdraw US troops as ‘we have defeated Isis’
Two British special forces soldiers have been seriously injured in a missile attack by the Islamic State (Isis) in Syria. The incident is thought to have happened on Saturday morning and the soldiers were airlifted by US forces for medical treatment.
Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet, reported that the British soldiers were hurt in an attack on a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) base in the town of Deir ez-Zor, in the east of the country.
Continue reading...Some US troops could remain in Syria, Trump official says
- Trump made controversial decision to withdraw US troops
- John Bolton to discuss pullout with Netanyahu and Erdogan
The US could leave some troops at a key military outpost in southern Syria, a Trump administration official told reporters on Saturday, despite the president’s controversial decision to withdraw all troops from the war-racked country.
Related: Trump slows Syria pullout but claims 'hero' status
Continue reading...Donald Trump has a point – the world should start solving its own problems | Simon Jenkins
For all his antics on the Mexican border, the US president is right to be withdrawing troops from Syria
For a Briton to spend time in the US just now is a blessed relief. Whole days pass, and no talk of Brexit. It is as if a pall has lifted from the art of conversation. But the US has its own deep divide, slashing through the populist body politic. It is Donald Trump and “America first”.
Trump has become a phenomenon. Like Samson in the temple, he seems able to topple the entire edifice of policy. Down crashes America’s government machine for the sake of a wall, world trade is devastated, stock markets plummet, alliances lie in ruins. It is astonishing what one man can do to the world, virtually alone.
Continue reading...Assad will remain in power ‘for a while’, says Jeremy Hunt
British foreign secretary says Russian support for Syrian regime means change unlikely
The British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has admitted for the first time that Russian support for the Syrian regime means Bashar al-Assad will remain in power for some time.
The UK has been at the forefront of calls for the Syrian president to leave office as part of a transition to a new government, but over the past year British diplomats have acknowledged that Assad would have to be allowed to stand in any UN-supervised democratic elections in Syria.
Continue reading...Beyond Syria: the Arab Spring’s aftermath
The outlook is bleak for key countries including Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya
Just over eight years ago, Tunisian fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in a bitter one-man protest outside a government office against the government. Within hours, demonstrators took to the streets of his small town, Sidi Bouzid. By the time he died in hospital just overtwo weeks later, protests had spread across the country, would soon topple the president and spill beyond Tunisia, in a regional convulsion dubbed the Arab Spring.
Related: Syria: Assad has decisively won his brutal battle
Continue reading...This is what we know about the mysterious noise attacks on US…
Dizziness. Ringing of the ears. Piercing sounds that suddenly disappear when a door is opened.
US-Backed Kurds Propose rejoining Syria if it will Decentralize
The Syrian Democratic Forces alliance, which controls a swathe of the north and northeast, said it had agreed with the government to form joint committees to discuss the major issues after a first round of talks on Thursday and Friday. The SDF's political arm, the Syrian Democratic Council, said the aim was to "clear the way for a broader and more comprehensive dialogue" and forge a "roadmap leading to a democratic and decentralised Syria".
US-Backed Leftist Kurds Holds talks with Damascus on Future of Northeast
Between them the Damascus government and the Syrian Democratic Forces control some 90 percent of the country, after a series of Russian-backed victories over rebel groups in recent months saw the government reassert its authority over much of the south. The delegation from the SDF's political wing is discussing the future of the autonomous administrations it has set up in areas of northern and northeastern Syria under its control, the alliance official said.