A Friday attack in Syria on the mainly Christian and Kurdish town of Qamishli is deepening fears that the country’s conflict will become a protracted, sectarian war that extends past the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Al Qaeda-linked forces targeted the airport in the area. Qamishli had existed under...

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Human rights groups and media outlets are calling renewed attention to the use of the helicopters and jets by the Syrian military. Syrian air assets have been critical in efforts by the Bashar al-Assad regime to limit rebel military gains — this week saw a new air offensive in the...

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A little-noticed 14-minute clip of Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad — pushed to YouTube by supporters of the Bashar al-Assad regime — underscores the broad but uneven efforts of pro-government elements to leverage social media. The YouTube video was published last week on YouTube on the accunt AmazingNews99, which hosts...

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Two fighters from the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah were reportedly killed Monday in Syria near the Lebanese-Syrian border. Meanwhile, battles have been raging around the Syrian city of Homs for several days, and rebel forces claim that Hezbollah fighters have also been killed there. The news underscores the degree to which the Iran-backed...

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Al Qaeda’s Iraqi wing is merging with an Islamist opposition group in Syria that the Washington Post describes as “the most aggressive and successful” of the rebel forces fighting in the country. The announcement of a formal merger between Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Syria-based Al Nusra Front was made in...

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The Syrian government has redeployed as many as 20,000 troops from areas around the country’s Golan Heights border with Israel. The troops are being moved closer to Damascus in what is the largest Syrian redeployment in 40 years. They’re leaving behind an increasingly chaotic power vacuum: “They [the Syrian government] have...

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Syria is lashing out at Turkey and Jordan, accusing both countries of providing material and logistical assistance to opposition forces seeking to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad regime. The accusation is more or less accurate inasmuch as Turkey and Jordan are assisting the rebels. Syria state television, citing reports in The New...

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A Syrian jet carried out an air strike in Lebanon yesterday, flying 12 miles into Lebanese territory and firing a missile near the border town of Arsal. The incident is the latest in a series of strikes and counterstrikes that have seen Lebanon-based groups cross-fight in Syria and the Syrian...

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Israeli troops on the Golan Heights took cross-border gunfire and at least one mortar from Syria yesterday. IDF forces returned fire. While insisting that Israel would not intervene in the Syrian war except in cases where Israel’s “red line” against the transfer of advanced weapons was at stake, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon...

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Damascus’ 2,000-year-old Jobar Synagogue – one of the world’s oldest synagogues and Syria’s holiest Jewish site – has been burned to the ground and its contents looted. Responsibility for the destruction remains unclear, and both the Syrian regime and anti-government rebels on Sunday accused each other of destroying the building....

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