Tag: syria

Categories
Geopolitics Syria Crisis

Marah’s Syria Diary: A Wartime Proposal From My Father’s Friend

Syria, an older man, an impossible choice.
Syria, an older man, an impossible choice. Yin Bogu/Xinhua/ZUMA

DAMASCUS — As part of a collaboration between Syria Deeply and Rookie, we’re publishing the memoirs of a teenage girl living in the midst of Syria’s war. Marah, a teenage girl from one of Syria’s besieged cities, shares her stories of life in the war. She recently moved to Damascus to continue her education, in the face of the ongoing war that has destroyed her local schools. Her father was killed in the violence and she now lives with distant relatives in the capital. Earlier installments can be read here and here. He is a handsome man in his 50s, […]

Categories
Geopolitics Syria Crisis

How ISIS Could Turn Assad Into A Western Ally

ISIS fighters in Aleppo, Syria
ISIS fighters in Aleppo, Syria Medyan Dairieh/ZUMA

The jihadist movement is not only reshaping the situation in Syria — it might completely shift alliances across the region. Will Assad ally with Turkey, Iraq and even the West against ISIS?

Categories
Society

Marijuana Cultivation Financing Syrian Rebels

In Jabal al-Zawiya, near Idlib
In Jabal al-Zawiya, near Idlib Syria Deeply

Four years into Syria’s conflict, cannabis has become an unlikely key source of financing for a number of groups in the opposition-held north. It’s used mostly to buy weapons. Jabal al-Zawiya in the province of Idlib is a mountainous area close to the Turkish border. Once famous for growing olives, it is now used to grow pot. Farmers here say the plant grows quickly, and yields higher revenues than olives. Most villages in Idlib province are living off the spoils of goods smuggled between Syria and Turkey, and many basic commodities available for purchase here now come from Turkey, too. […]

Categories
Society Syria Crisis

Women Terrorizing Women For ISIS, Syria’s Female Jihad

The all-female al-Khansaa's brigade in Syria.
The all-female al-Khansaa's brigade in Syria. via Syria Deeply

Radicalized Islamic men aren’t the only ones punishing non-compliant civilians in Syria. Now women zero in on other women for not following the group’s strict brand of Sharia law.

Categories
Society Syria Crisis

Child Beggars Multiply On The Streets Of Damascus

A Syrian child comes back into al-Moadamiya, a district on the outskirts of Damascus that has been besieged by the government troops for months, in Syria, March 2, 2014.
A Syrian child comes back into al-Moadamiya, a district on the outskirts of Damascus that has been besieged by the government troops for months, in Syria, March 2, 2014. Jiang Tieying/Xinhua/ZUMA

Children as young as four are the main breadwinners for some families in the Syrian capital.

Categories
Geopolitics Syria Crisis

Syria’s Marriage Brokers: Matchmakers Of Love Or Wartime Traffickers?

In Damascus
In Damascus Qin Haishi/ZUMA

In rural Idlib, marriage offices are fixing people up, but some say they’re exploiting the lonely during wartime by selling desperate women to overseas men.

Categories
Geopolitics

World Cup Dreaming For Iraqi Children Fleeing Jihadists

Abdelrahman Qaid Mofuk fled with his family when violence broke out in his hometown of Mosul.
Abdelrahman Qaid Mofuk fled with his family when violence broke out in his hometown of Mosul. Emad Kudeda/UNICEF

QASYAR — Ahmed is wearing a Barcelona soccer jersey with Argentine superstar Lionel Messi’s name on the back. Rasheed has Rodrigo Palacio’s from Inter Milan, while Samad is sporting the Chelsea shirt of Brazil midfielder Oscar dos Santos Emboaba Junior. While their heroes compete in the World Cup on the other side of the world, […]

Categories
Geopolitics

Syrian Rebels Move Underground, Turn To Tunnel Warfare

A Member of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) carries a homemade rocket in Aleppo.
A Member of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) carries a homemade rocket in Aleppo. Ahmed Deeb/ZUMA

Rebel fighters are no match for Bashar al-Assad’s superior military might. But underground, they use tunnels to travel safely and plant bombs close to the president’s seats of power.

Categories
blog

ISIS In Syria Bans World Cup Except For Themselves

ISIS In Syria Bans World Cup Except For Themselves

The Sunni jihadist group ISIS continues to conquer territory in Iraq, while its leaders have declared an Islamic caliphate — in a bold bid for power across the Muslim world. But back in Syria, where ISIS has been a growing presence for more than a year, a citizen-reporter for an independent Syrian news site recounts […]

Categories
Geopolitics Syria Crisis

The Shady Syrian Oligarchs Who Keep The Regime Afloat

Gas production in Ash Shaddadi, Syria.
Gas production in Ash Shaddadi, Syria. Andree Kaiser/MCT/ZUMA

DAMASCUS — In Syria, it’s business as usual. Despite the desolate landscape of destruction that loyalist troops leave behind and the sanctions imposed by Western countries, a few entrepreneurs in the power’s sphere of influence are still amassing profits, say experts of the Syrian regime. They are lifting the veil on part of this occult […]

Categories
Geopolitics Syria Crisis

A Syrian Mother Talks About Her Son, Sold Into Battle

A young Free Syrian Army soldier in Ma'loula, western Syria
A young Free Syrian Army soldier in Ma'loula, western Syria Niclas HammarströM/Kontinent/ZUMA

The trafficking of young men as soldiers is on the rise in Syria. One mother thought her 16-year-old was being taken to find medical treatment, until she saw a photo of him in uniform.

Categories
blog

21 Years Served For Winning Horse Race Against Assad Brother

21 Years Served For Winning Horse Race Against Assad Brother

There was much coverage of the announcement earlier this month of Bashar al-Assad’s amnesty to commute or reduce sentences for thousands of prisoners in Syria, including some with connections to the ongoing uprising against the regime. But there was one untold case of a freed prisoner who has no connections to current events — and […]

Categories
Geopolitics

A Syrian Payoff For ISIS Assault In Iraq?

ISIS fighters in Syria in a photo taken last year
ISIS fighters in Syria in a photo taken last year Medyan Dairieh/ZUMA

The Islamist radical group’s conquests in Iraq could help it take control of parts of eastern and northern Syria it had been forced to abandon.

Categories
Geopolitics Ideas

The Real Reasons The West Is So Passive On Syria

Bashar al-Assad propaganda in Damascus
Bashar al-Assad propaganda in Damascus Michael Goodine

-OpEd- PARIS — Let’s be honest, Syria’s June 3 presidential election was nothing but a giant government-orchestrated masquerade. Bashar al-Assad will remain president of Syria, a country whose population has been largely decimated, as the three-year-long conflict has turned the country into a battleground for international jihadists from Shia and Sunni Islam, with the direct […]

Categories
Geopolitics

In Syria, Mannequin Parts Become Artificial Limbs

Demands for prosthetic limbs in Syria are overwhelming.
Demands for prosthetic limbs in Syria are overwhelming. themostinept/Worldcrunch

DOUMA — Thousands of Syrians have lost limbs during the country’s three-year war. Here in the Damascus suburbs, two men have opened a workshop where functioning prosthetics are fashioned out of found materials. When Omar al-Ahmad celebrated his 13th birthday this year, he didn’t mark the milestone by shopping for new clothes with his father in downtown Damascus, coveting — as he would have done before the war — the uniform of his favorite soccer team on a mannequin in a shop window. Instead, his gift was the right arm of a mannequin, fished out of rubble by his father […]

Categories
Geopolitics Ideas

Jihad Makes Anti-Semitism Deadly Again In Europe

Tel Aviv funeral of the Israeli couple killed in the Brussels Jewish Museum shooting
Tel Aviv funeral of the Israeli couple killed in the Brussels Jewish Museum shooting Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua/ZUMA

Like the Toulouse shootings two years ago, the cold-blooded killings at Brussels’ Jewish Museum show radical Islam mixing with anti-Semitism to target Jews 70 years after the Nazis’ demise.

Categories
Geopolitics

Syrian Regime Hunts Down Men Dodging Mandatory Army Service

Young would-be soldiers duck Syria's military service mandate
Young would-be soldiers duck Syria's military service mandate Syria Deeply

DAMASCUS — Across the country, an increasing number of would-be soldiers are ducking Syria’s mandatory 18-month military service requirement. In most cases, the young men are either hiding out — or taking up arms for the opposition. Hossam, a 26-year-old from Hama, has been summoned by the Syrian army to fulfill the compulsory 18-month service required of all young men here. But three years into a conflict that has killed more than 62,800 fighters from all sides, he is refusing to comply. “The Syrian army is no longer the nation’s army, and nothing motivates me to join it,” he says. […]

Categories
Society Syria Crisis

At Milan Train Station, One More Stop For Syrian Refugees

Inside Milan’s Central Station
Inside Milan’s Central Station Arrivi

Italy is often a point of arrival in Europe for immigrants from troubled points east and south. But most will eventually wind up in northern destinations. What have they seen? What will they find?

Categories
Geopolitics Society

In Syria, That Other Casualty Of War: Education

A school worker shows a classroom damaged by a mortar shell in Damascus
A school worker shows a classroom damaged by a mortar shell in Damascus Zhang Naijie/Xinhua/ZUMA

Many Syrian children are forced to leave school and work as child laborers for employers who ofter mistreat them. New statistics shows a 30% drop in school attendance since the war began.

Categories
Geopolitics

A Pause In The War, Returning Home In Syria

The Damascus suburb of Barzeh
The Damascus suburb of Barzeh Facebook page

DAMASCUS — Despite relative calm after months of heavy fighting, Syrians returning home to the Damascus suburb of Barzeh are finding their homes in need of repairs that are often too pricey to take on alone. At the beginning of the year, in besieged suburbs of Damascus and in rural villages within the province, local opposition officials signed temporary cease-fire agreements with the Syrian government. Rebel fighters put down their weapons and, slowly, civilians were allowed to return to the long-embattled neighborhoods. Barzeh, a northwest suburb of the Syrian capital, was one of the first communities to recognize a cease-fire […]

Categories
Geopolitics Syria Crisis

War Diaries Of A Syrian E.R. Doctor

A Syrian nurse caring for a little girl after her house was bombed by Assad militias, in November 2012.
A Syrian nurse caring for a little girl after her house was bombed by Assad militias, in November 2012. Syria Freedom

An Aleppo ear-nose-and-throat specialist had to suddenly face the treating of war’s horrific injuries, especially after a government barrel-bomb offensive began there in December.

Categories
Geopolitics

How Obama Is Accelerating America’s Decline

Going down: A lonely arrival last month in Asia
Going down: A lonely arrival last month in Asia Liu Tian/Xinhua/ZUMA

-OpEd- PARIS — Before the end of 2014, China will have become the world’s largest economy. For the first time since 1872 — when China overtook Britain — the United States will not top the list. This news amid data published last week by the International Comparison Program, a respected institution hosted by the World […]

Categories
Ideas Syria Crisis

Deep Meaning, Cheap Labor: How Syrian Refugees Are Changing Turkey

A young Syrian refugee walks in Istanbul's Tarbalasi district
A young Syrian refugee walks in Istanbul's Tarbalasi district Hans Van Rhoon/ZUMA

The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has reached 900,000. They are our new poor. How we treat them is the great test of a new democracy.

Categories
Geopolitics Syria Crisis

Marah’s Syria Diary, Part 2: Lost Dreams

Syrian refugee children play in a school in Damascus
Syrian refugee children play in a school in Damascus Qin Haishi/ZUMA

A teenage girl living in one of Syria’s besieged cities shares her stories of life in a time of war. She dreams of getting an education, but the ongoing violence has destroyed local schools.

Categories
Economy Society

Syria’s War Economy, And A Yogurt Startup In Damascus

Making do in Damascus
Making do in Damascus Igor

As war upends the economy in Damascus, a few brave souls are launching small business projects that provide jobs for those desperate to work.

Categories
Geopolitics Syria Crisis

Marah’s Diary, Part 1: Childhood Hunger In Syrian War

A Syrian girl walks past Syrian army soldiers in Harasta, near Damascus
A Syrian girl walks past Syrian army soldiers in Harasta, near Damascus Qin Haishi/Xinhua/ZUMA

As part of a collaboration between Syria Deeply and Rookie, we’re publishing the memoirs of a teenage girl living in the midst of Syria’s war. Marah, as she’s chosen to be known, lives in a city under siege. She was 15 years old when the uprising began. This is the first in her series of articles. My city was once magnificent. In spring, it bloomed. We used to wake up to the sound of birds chirping and to the fragrant scent of flowers. Today, spring is here again. But what kind of spring is this? We now wake up to […]

Categories
Geopolitics Syria Crisis

Syrians Search For DIY Alternative Energy Sources

Making do with what's available in Damascus
Making do with what's available in Damascus Yin Bogu/Xinhua/ZUMA

With power outages and deep shortages, some civilians are finding new ways to heat homes and cook meals, by using the natural resources around them — and even bomb craters.

Categories
Geopolitics Society

Treating Cancer In War-Torn Syria

Staff at Aleppo's Dar al-Shifa hospital
Staff at Aleppo's Dar al-Shifa hospital Kontinent/ZUMA

DAMASCUS — Syria’s medical infrastructure has crumbled, making traditional treatments hard to come by for patients still living in the country. That has left raditional herbal and medicinal druggists, known as Attareen, as the only real alternative to cancer patients and other long-term care patients trapped in Syria. Jawad, who has lung cancer, often visits Damascus’ Shaalan Market in search of tropical fruits. Readily available and costing between $8 and $14, Jawad and many of his friends who are also cancer patients have included these fruits in their daily diet. “During my online research for alternative cancer treatments, I found […]

Categories
Geopolitics Ideas

From Damascus To Crimea: Connecting The Dots Of A New Cold War

Damascus risks enduring the most immediate consequences of the new Cold War
Damascus risks enduring the most immediate consequences of the new Cold War Jiang Tieying/Xinhua/ZUMA

PARIS — Will Syrians pay for the Ukrainians? Will the millions of victims of a protracted and bloody conflict in Syria suffer the backlashes of the situation playing out in Ukraine? Sadly, the answer is yes. Posed in these simplistic terms, the question might seem odd. But in reality, the growing hostility between Moscow and […]

Categories
Geopolitics Society

Germany’s “Jihad Cheerleaders,” Running Off To Marry Islamist Terrorists

"Mujahidas" in Iran
"Mujahidas" in Iran Al Qadissiyah screenshot/Worldcrunch

BERLIN — Sonya* disappeared during the fall school vacation in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The 16-year-old high school student, the daughter of an Algerian and a German, left her family’s house in Konstanz and never returned. Sonya’s parents called the police fearing the worst. Had their daughter been kidnapped? Was she possibly the victim […]

Categories
Geopolitics Syria Crisis

Syria’s Silent War Crime: Systematic Mass Rape

A Syrian woman looks over Damascus
A Syrian woman looks over Damascus Li Muzi/Xinhua/ZUMA

Evidence is piling up that the Damascus regime has used rape – of daughters in front of fathers, wives in front of husbands – as a targeted weapon.

Categories
Ideas Ukraine Winter

Ukraine: Buried By History, Lost In Translation

Kiev's Maidan Square on Feb. 24, 2014
Kiev's Maidan Square on Feb. 24, 2014 Sergii Kharchenko/NurPhoto/ZUMA

The competing sides, both globally and regionally, will never see Ukraine’s reality the same way, so deep are the historical and cultural divides. Analysis from Kiev.

Categories
blog Geopolitics

To Syria And Back In 21 Days: Journey Of A Teenage Jihad

Toulouse airport was the point of departure
Toulouse airport was the point of departure Duch seb

Two French teenagers, aged 15 and 16, organized their journey in just a few days, via the Internet, to set off on Jihad in Syria. Once there, they were soon disillusioned.

Categories
Geopolitics

Along Syrian Border, Lebanese Militias Are Forming

Ras Baalbek from above
Ras Baalbek from above https://www.rasbaalbeck.com/
Categories
Geopolitics

Death And Exodus As Barrel Bombs Fall On Aleppo

Once Syria's thriving economic capital, Aleppo has largely been reduced to rubble
Once Syria's thriving economic capital, Aleppo has largely been reduced to rubble Mohammed al-Khatieb

ALEPPO – It’s been three months since the Syrian government launched its offensive on this city’s opposition neighborhoods, using barrels packed with explosives. After a two-week lull during harsh winter weather, President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have reportedly resumed – and even increased the intensity – of the raids. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that more than 400 people have been killed in the country’s largest city by these makeshift “barrel bombs” since the beginning of February, even as Geneva II peace talks were under way. Most rebel-held areas in Aleppo have turned into a no-man’s land as residents […]

Categories
Geopolitics Ideas

Walid Muallem, The Syrian Art Of Two-Faced Diplomacy

What's he thinking?
What's he thinking? Kremlin

Syria’s longtime foreign minister has shown no sign of opening during the Geneva peace talks, which resumed this week. But Walid Muallem may be the world’s last best hope.

Categories
Geopolitics Syria Crisis

Survivors Of Syria’s Torture Chambers Describe Horror

Statues in a Syrian museum showing torture methods of detainees
Statues in a Syrian museum showing torture methods of detainees Solin hesso

One tortured by the regime, another by Islamist rebels, both offer evidence of the worst kind of brutality that reigns in Syria today.

Categories
Syria Crisis

Inside The Mind Of A Syrian Jihadist

Center of Kilis, Turkey, near the Syrian border
Center of Kilis, Turkey, near the Syrian border Brian Dell

KILIS — Mohammad, a jihadi rebel from northern Syria, is describing his wedding night. His family had insisted on a non-religious ceremony. At the reception, just as his relatives began to dance and celebrate, he went home. “The music made me uncomfortable,” he says. Believing in the same religious tenets that have led extremists to outlaw music and singing in jihad-held areas of Syria, Mohammad chose to spend the night at home with his sister. On this day, in Kilis, across the border in Turkey, the 35-year-old former salesman is running late, but makes a courtesy call to say he’s […]

Categories
blog

Iranians Mock U.S. ‘Bluff’ On Syria

As talks between the Syrian regime and rebels continue in Switzerland, the “Iranian Question” isn’t going away. Though Tehran, which is a key supporter of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, was barred from attending the Geneva 2 talks for refusing several pre-conditions, it has made its voice heard from back home. Ali Akbar Velayati, a former […]

Categories
Geopolitics

Verbatim: What The World’s Been Saying

Verbatim: What The World's Been Saying
Exit mobile version