Syria

Read recent Syrian news stories and current events on Newser.com

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Dad of Drowned Toddler Was Driving Boat, Say Refugees

That puts his account of what happened in dispute

(Newser) - A messy coda to the story of the drowned Syrian toddler who washed ashore while trying to reach Greece with his family. Other passengers aboard the boat are questioning the account given by the boy's father, Abdullah Kurdi, about the ship's sinking, reports Reuters . Three people—including an...

10K Syrian Refugees? We Once Did 80 Times That

The US once accepted 800K war refugees: Max J. Rosenthal

(Newser) - The US will accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year, and that's great—but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the 800,000 Southeast Asian refugees we accepted after the Vietnam War. That's the argument in Mother Jones today, as writer...

US to Take 10K Syrian Refugees

White House says it's a 'significant scaling up' of the US commitment

(Newser) - The US plans to ramp up the number of Syrian refugees it will accept: President Obama has set a goal of 10,000 in the fiscal year that begins in October, up from the current year's approximate total of 1,800, reports the Wall Street Journal . It's a...

Russian Military May Be Joining Fight in Syria

The US and its allies are concerned

(Newser) - If reports from a number of anonymous sources are to be believed, Russia is increasing its military presence in Syria, where a four-year civil war has resulted in 250,000 deaths, and that's worrying to the United States and its allies. The Guardian reports increased sightings of Russian jets,...

Britain to Accept 20K Migrants, But Is It Enough?

France is taking 24K over the next 2 years

(Newser) - Austria and Germany have already accepted thousands of migrants fleeing the Middle East—now it's Britain's turn. British Prime Minister David Cameron said today that the UK will house up to 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020, the BBC reports. Britain has a "moral responsibility" to help,...

US Rethinks Rebel Training After Disastrous Launch

US-trained fighters killed, kidnapped within weeks

(Newser) - The Pentagon plans a total revamp of its plan to train an army of moderate Syrian rebels after a disastrous start to the program. Officials had aimed to train thousands of fighters in the first year, but only a few dozen made it through the vetting process , and many of...

Facebook Post on Aylan Could Get Man Imprisoned

Man allegedly celebrated drowning of Syrian migrant child

(Newser) - After a Berlin man allegedly posted a photo of a drowned Syrian child to Facebook with the message "we are not mourning but celebrating it," German police raided his home today, seizing a computer and two cellphones, the AP reports. The man is now facing up to three...

Drowned Syrian Toddler Had a Desperate Backstory

Aylan Kurdi, 3, and his family were en route to Canada from Syria

(Newser) - We now know the name of the drowned boy who has become a symbol of Europe's desperate migrant crisis. The National Post identifies the boy, whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach yesterday, as 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi of Syria. He perished when his small dingy, part of...

Drowned Toddler Sadly Illustrates Migrant Crisis

Syrian boy drowned trying to reach Greece

(Newser) - (Warning: Links on this story go to disturbing images.) Photos of the lifeless body of a Syrian toddler who drowned while trying to reach the Greek island of Kos were sweeping the Internet today and fast becoming THE images of Europe's migrant crisis. They're disturbing, however, so...

Satellite Confirms ISIS Did Blow Up Key Ancient Temple

UN agency confirms temple's destruction at the hands of ISIS

(Newser) - The world is indeed down one treasure after the destruction of a major temple in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. By comparing a satellite image snapped yesterday with another from Thursday—visible side by side here —a UN agency has confirmed that the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel...

ISIS Blows Up 'Most Important' Temple

Palmyra's Temple of Bel was amazingly well-preserved

(Newser) - The 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel was considered the most important temple in the ancient city of Palmyra, which is itself considered one of the world's treasures, and it's now believed to be rubble. Witnesses say ISIS militants, who seized the Syrian city in May, destroyed the temple...

Photo Changes Life of Syrian Refugee

Donations pour in for Abdul Halim and his family after image goes viral

(Newser) - A Syrian refugee now has money to send his children to school and help others who have fled his war-torn homeland—thanks to Twitter, a photo of him and his daughter selling pens, and the generosity of thousands of people around the world. CNN reports Norwegian activist Gissur Simonarson posted...

Whiz-Kid Cartographer Tracks ISIS From His Bedroom
 Whiz-Kid 
 Cartographer 
 Tracks ISIS From 
 His Bedroom 

in case you missed it

Whiz-Kid Cartographer Tracks ISIS From His Bedroom

Thomas van Linge is respected war-zone mapmaker—and he's only 19

(Newser) - Thomas van Linge has become one of the most respected cartographers around when it comes to tracking global conflicts, including the advances of ISIS, Boko Haram, and separatists in Ukraine. His highly detailed, color-coded maps have been picked up by CNN, the New York Times, and the Huffington Post, among...

ISIS Images Show Destroyed Ancient Temple

It appears the 2K-year-old temple of Baalshamin is no more

(Newser) - ISIS released propaganda images today that purport to show militants laying explosives in and then blowing up the 2,000-year-old temple of Baalshamin in Syria's ancient caravan city of Palmyra. The images, posted on social media by supporters of the group, showed militants carrying barrels of explosives, and laying...

What ISIS Does to Gay Men
 What ISIS Does to Gay Men 

What ISIS Does to Gay Men

Those guilty of sodomy are thrown off buildings, shot, or stoned

(Newser) - Islamic State militants track down gay people through the cellphone and Facebook contacts of their captives, then throw them from rooftops, the UN Security Council heard in a closed-door informal meeting yesterday—the first ever to address violence and discrimination against the LGBT community. "If a victim did not...

'Darkest Predictions Taking Place' in Ancient City

ISIS blows up 'extremely important' Palmyra temple

(Newser) - When ISIS first seized the ancient city of Palmyra in May, the group's conduct at first seemed oddly restrained —but now there's death and destruction as usual. In the latest outrage, the militants blew up the 2,000-year-old temple of Baal Shamin, a Roman-era site that, like...

ISIS Beheads Archaeology Pioneer

Khaled al-Asaad beheaded in Palmyra, where he worked for 50 years

(Newser) - A tragic blow to the archaeology community: Islamic State militants have beheaded one of Syria's most prominent antiquities scholars in a square in the seized city of Palmyra, where dozens of people gathered to watch, Syrian state media and a British activist group report, via the AP . The body...

US, Turkey Plan to Wipe ISIS From 68-Mile Zone

Syrian rebels will reportedly assist from the ground

(Newser) - Turkey's nascent fight against ISIS appears to be rapidly intensifying. The country has settled on the broad strokes of a plan with the US that would see the two countries come together to create an ISIS-free zone, with the US supplying warplanes and Turkey contributing troops who wouldn't...

Report: Assad Didn't Give It All Up

Last year's mission to find chemical weapons controlled by Assad regime: inspectors

(Newser) - Syria continues to have a substantial—and growing—chemical weapons arsenal despite an international mission to rid the country of such munitions last year, reports the Wall Street Journal . In an in-depth piece, the newspaper talks to the international inspectors and others involved in that much-hyped mission and concludes that...

4 Journalists Vanish in Syria
 4 Journalists 
 Vanish in Syria 

4 Journalists Vanish in Syria

3 Spanish men were last seen in Aleppo

(Newser) - Three Spanish freelance journalists who traveled to Syria to report amid the country's long-running civil war have gone missing around the embattled northern city of Aleppo, a Spanish journalism association says, the latest ensnared in the world's most dangerous assignment for reporters. The disappearance of Antonio Pampliega, Jose...

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