Syria

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

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US to Provide Syria Rebels With Weapons

Decision follows conclusion regime used chemical agents

(Newser) - Now that the US has determined that Bashar al-Assad's regime used chemical weapons, the Obama administration intends to help arm Syrian rebels, officials tell the New York Times . The US will send light arms and ammunition; antitank weapons are also a possibility. Rebel leaders have called for antiaircraft weapons,...

US: Syria Used Chemical Weapons

NYT: Obama now convinced after new intelligence assessment

(Newser) - The Syrian war seems to have tipped lately in favor of Bashar al-Assad, but here's one development with at least the potential to change things: The US has concluded that Syria used chemical weapons on a small scale multiple times, reports the New York Times . President Obama has long...

Clinton: 'Big Mistake' Not to Act in Syria

Presidents who don't act because of polls risk looking 'like total wuss'

(Newser) - With the body count mounting in Syria, Bill Clinton has joined the chorus calling for American intervention, in what some are seeing as a sharp turn away from the White House. At a closed-to-the-press event on Tuesday night, Clinton sided with John McCain—the Obama administration's biggest critic on...

Grim New Number for Syria: 92,901

UN says that's the number of documented dead

(Newser) - The United Nations' human rights office released a grim number today: 92,901 confirmed killed in Syria between March 2011 and April 2013. Even worse: The actual number is probably much higher, the AP reports. At least 6,561 children are among the dead, 1,729 of them under age...

Villagers 'Massacred' by Syrian Rebels: Report

Shiite clerics hung from gates of town, activist claims

(Newser) - Rebels attacked a village in eastern Syria yesterday, leaving at least 60 people dead—most of them pro-government Shiite fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which says the rebels numbered into the thousands. A government official describes the attack on Hatla as "a massacre against villagers...

Syrian Refugees Could End Up in US

State Department 'ready to consider the idea,' official says

(Newser) - Thousands of Syrian refugees could end up living in America, as Washington and other international capitals consider a resettlement plan to help relieve the Middle Eastern countries that have so far taken in 1.6 million refugees. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees has not yet made...

Syria, Hezbollah Grab Key Town From Rebels

Fall of Qusair a huge setback for rebels

(Newser) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, regained control today of the strategic town of Qusair where fighting has raged with rebels for nearly three weeks, according to state TV. The capture of the town near the Lebanese border solidifies some of the regime's recent...

Callous Liberals Doomed Syria
 Callous Liberals Doomed Syria 
OPINION
Jun 4, 2013 1:46 PM CDT

Callous Liberals Doomed Syria

Syria isn't Iraq, Richard Cohen wants you to know

(Newser) - As Syria's bloody civil war has raged on, Richard Cohen at the Washington Post has been dismayed to see so many liberals fighting against intervention. "The argument is that Syria would be Iraq all over again," Cohen writes. But "this is tendentious." People like Cohen...

Al-Qaeda's New Service: Complaints Dept.

Notice welcomes public concerns in Syria

(Newser) - Having taken over some of the civilian government in the Syrian city of Raqqa, al-Qaeda is ready to hear from the public. "Anyone who might have a complaint against any element of the Islamic state, whether the Emir"—a leadership position—"or an ordinary soldier, can come...

US Woman Killed in Syria 'Brainwashed': Family

'My mother was not a terrorist,' wrote Nicole Mansfield's daughter

(Newser) - How did Nicole Lynn Mansfield, a 33-year-old woman raised in a Baptist family in the suburbs of Michigan, end up dying alongside rebel forces in Syria this week ? It's not an easy question for her family to answer, but they have some speculation: brainwashing, bribery, or perhaps force,...

Syria Apparently Lying About Russia's Missiles

Russian sources say they won't be there for at least a year

(Newser) - Bashar al-Assad must have been either mistaken or bluffing when he said Syria had already received its first shipment of S-300 air defense missiles from Russia, if reports appearing in Russian media today are true. Syria won't actually get the missiles until spring of next year, per a contract...

Picture of Michigan Woman Killed in Syria Emerges

Nicole Mansfield converted to Islam after meeting Arab immigrant: family

(Newser) - The FBI has confirmed reports that a Michigan woman was killed fighting alongside anti-government forces in Syria, her family says. A number of years ago, Nicole Mansfield married an Arab immigrant; afterward, she converted to Islam, relatives tell the Detroit Free Press . After he got a green card to stay...

Syria Says It Killed a Michigan Woman

She was allegedly with rebels; US investigating

(Newser) - An unconfirmed report on Syrian TV says government forces killed a woman from Flint, Michigan, along with a British man and another unidentified Westerner, reports CNN . Syria's official news agency showed the driver's license of a woman identified as Nicole Mansfield, 33, and said the trio were fighting...

Assad: The Russian Missiles Are Here

He says in interview to air on Hezbollah TV channel

(Newser) - On the one hand, it's a fairly expected announcement: On the heels of Russia's confirmation of a missile deal with Syria, President Bashar al-Assad has confirmed that the initial shipment of S-300 air defense missiles was in fact delivered to his country, with the second portion of the...

EU Ends Arms Embargo on Syrian Rebels

But no immediate plans to send arms

(Newser) - British Foreign Secretary William Hague says the European Union has decided to lift the arms embargo on the Syrian opposition while maintaining all other sanctions against Bashar Assad's regime after June 1. Hague said after a meeting today that the decision "sends a very strong message from Europe...

French Paper Reports Chemical Attacks in Syria Firsthand

'Le Monde' describes chemical attacks in gritty detail

(Newser) - When Obama last spoke about the use of chemical weapons in Syria, he said he wanted to avoid "rushing to judgement" because "we don't know how they were used, when they were used, who used them." Well, here's some detail: Journalists from French newspaper Le ...

Syria: OK, We'll Attend Peace Talks

Foreign minister says regime has 'agreed in principle' to go to Geneva

(Newser) - The Syrian government said today it has agreed "in principle" to take part in an international conference in Geneva next month aimed at ending the country's civil war. Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem says his government believes that the conference, proposed by Russia and the United States,...

Hezbollah Chief on Syria: 'We Will Be Victorious'

Militant group's leader openly throws chips in with Assad regime

(Newser) - Hezbollah's leader vowed to help propel President Bashar al-Assad to victory in Syria's bloody civil war, warning that the fall of the Damascus regime would give rise to extremists and plunge the Middle East into a "dark period." In a televised address, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah also...

Syria's War Triggered by ... Water?

The Tigris-Euphrates Basin is losing a lot of water, and fast

(Newser) - Tucked into a piece on the drastically dropping water levels in the Middle East's Tigris-Euphrates Basin comes this theory: The drop helped spur the Syrian civil war. As Joshua Hammer explains for Smithsonian , a pair of satellites tasked with measuring groundwater found that the basin lost the equivalent of...

Hezbollah, Assad Make Massive Push Into Key Town

Israel threatens more strikes as battle for Qusair rages

(Newser) - Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon have taken their most prominent role yet in the Syrian civil war, fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad's forces as the military attempts to regain control of a strategic rebel-held city near the Lebanese order. Activists say at least 23 members of the Iran-backed militant group have...

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