The United States will be housing American troops at the same Iraqi base that Iran-backed Shiite militias will be using, Josh Rogin and Eli Lake reported for Bloomberg View today. Two senior administration officials confirmed to us that U.S. soldiers and Shiite militia groups are both using the Taqqadum military...

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey for increased aid to the beleaguered Druze community in Syria during Dempsey’s visit to Israel last week, the Times of Israel reported Sunday. The request was lodged with the US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman during the...

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A photographer known only as “Caesar” who photographed thousands of victims of the regime of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, and smuggled those pictures out of the country as documentation of the regime’s brutality, shared his story in an extensive report published Thursday in Vanity Fair. Caesar had been a crime-scene photographer for Syria’s...

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The United Nations’ special envoy to Syria has estimated that Iran is spending billions to prop up the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Eli Lake reported today for Bloomberg View. On Monday, a spokeswoman for the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told me that the envoy estimates Iran spends $6...

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The United States accused the Iran-backed regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of assisting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) by conducting air strikes against anti-Assad rebels battling ISIS, Reuters reported today. Islamic State fighters pushed back rival insurgents north of Aleppo on Sunday near the Turkish border, threatening...

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An anti-Assad rebel group in Syria may quit the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) over American demands that it not target the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Michael Weiss reported Sunday for The Daily Beast. A centerpiece of the U.S. war plan against ISIS...

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The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, despite a series of setbacks and defeats on the battlefield, has “moved aggressively to prevent regime collapse” with backing from foreign troops and Iranian financial support, according to an analysis written by Phillip Smyth yesterday in Foreign Policy. Smyth noted that many Iraqi Shiite fighters...

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With the capture of the ancient city of Palmyra and the town of Al-Tanaf on the border with Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) now controls half of the territory in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Times of Israel reported Friday: In...

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American Delta Force commandos raided a compound in Syria Friday night that was controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), killing Abu Sayyaf, who oversaw the terror group’s oil operations, in what Defense Secretary Ashton Carter called a “significant blow” to the organization, The New York Times reported Saturday....

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The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is advancing in both Syria and Iraq, according to news reports published today. The New York Times reported that ISIS forces were progressing toward the city of Palmyra in central Syria. Palmyra is the location of ancient ruins, and ISIS’ progress raises concern that those ruins could be...

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