Bashar al-Assad

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Insiders: Obama Ready to Arm Syrian Rebels

President planning more aggressive Syria policy, officials say

(Newser) - President Obama may not have sounded very threatening during yesterday's White House press conference , but senior administration officials say he is planning a much more aggressive line on Syria, the Washington Post reports. The president is planning to supply the Syrian opposition with lethal weaponry for the first time,...

Syria PM Survives Assassination Attempt

He escapes blast in central Damascus

(Newser) - Syria's prime minister escaped an assassination attempt today when a bomb went off near his convoy in Damascus in the latest attack targeting a top regime offical, state media reported. Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the bombing in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, according to...

Hagel: Syria Likely Used Chemical Weapons

Defense secretary says sarin gas probably used on 'small scale'

(Newser) - Have we crossed the red line? US intelligence has concluded with "some degree of varying confidence" that Bashar al-Assad's regime has used chemical weapons, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters in Abu Dhabi today, per the AP . The determination apparently came within the past day, and the White...

Britain, France: Syria Used Chemical Weapons

They want UN to launch broad investigation

(Newser) - Syria's Bashar al-Assad has indeed defied repeated US warnings not to use chemical weapons, say France and Britain. The two nations told the UN they have evidence that Syrian troops used nerve agents more than once in Aleppo, Homs, and maybe even Damascus, reports the Washington Post . Investigators drew...

'Syrian Electronic Army' Hacks NPR

Group said to back Assad

(Newser) - Several NPR sites and Twitter feeds were hacked last night; visitors saw a message saying "Syrian Electronic Army Was Here," the Two-Way blog reports. "We will not say why we attacked @NPR ... They know the reason and that enough #SEA #Syria," read a tweet from the...

6K Dead Make March Syria's Bloodiest Month

Death rate hits 200 per day as conflict grinds on

(Newser) - The death rate in Syria's civil war is accelerating, with more than 6,000 deaths making March the deadliest month of the conflict that began more than two years ago. The deaths include hundreds of women and children as well as a large number of rebel fighters and government...

Syrian Opposition Chief Quits, Blasts Global Support

Mouaz al-Khatib says 'international parties' wrongly push for dialogue with Assad

(Newser) - The leader of the Western-backed Syrian opposition coalition resigned today, citing what he called the insufficient international support for those seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad. Mouaz al-Khatib, a respected preacher who has led the Syrian National Coalition since soon after its creation in November, said in a statement on...

Kerry to Iraq: Stop Weapons to Syria

US continues to push Iraq to inspect Iranian flights

(Newser) - John Kerry dropped in unannounced on Iraq today, the first visit by an American secretary of state in four years, and he used the opportunity to continue prodding Nouri al-Maliki to slow the Iranian weapons that flow through his skies and into the hands of Syria's Bashar al-Assad. “...

CIA Increases Help to Syrian Insurgents

Agency providing intelligence to certain rebel groups

(Newser) - The US military might not have plans to intervene in Syria anytime soon, but the CIA is a different story. The agency has actually increased its aid to insurgents of late, mostly in the form of passing along intelligence about the Syrian army, reports the Wall Street Journal . The move...

Review Suggests Syria Didn't Use 'Chemical Weapons'

But it might have been a lesser 'caustic agent,' US officials tell CNN

(Newser) - Bashar al-Assad may not have crossed the red line after all. US intelligence officials don't think Syria used chemical weapons in Aleppo this week, reports CNN . At least, that's the conclusion after an initial review, which could change as more intelligence arrives. But analysts examining video say victims...

House Intel Chief: I Think Syria Used Chemicals

Assad blames rebels amid much confusion

(Newser) - So did Bashar al-Assad cross the "red line" that could trigger US involvement by using chemical weapons on rebels in Aleppo? Or did the rebels use them? Or neither? Confirmation remains elusive after an attack today that Syria's official news agency says left more than 30 dead and...

Iran Shipping More Weapons to Assad
Iran Shipping More Weapons to Assad
Mar 14, 2013 4:30 AM CDT

Iran Shipping More Weapons to Assad

Meanwhile, French official says they want to arm opposition

(Newser) - Iran has drastically increased its arms shipments to Syria in recent months, sending weapons to Bashar al-Assad's regime, and to its Hezbollah supporters, in what is increasingly becoming a Shiite-vs-Sunni conflict, Western diplomats tell Reuters . The weapons are flowing primarily through Iraq—despite Iraqi protestations to the contrary—but...

Syria Using Militias for Mass Killings: UN

As more than 2.5M displaced by civil war

(Newser) - The latest travesty the Syrian government has been accused of: using local militias to carry out mass killings. UN human rights investigators say these "Popular Committees" commit killings that sometimes have "sectarian overtones," Reuters reports. (The rebels in Syria are mainly Sunni Muslims, while President Bashar al-Assad...

Syrian Rebels Seize Key Provincial City

Fighters smash statue of President Assad's father

(Newser) - Syrian rebels today captured most of the key north-central city of Raqqa, possibly dashing President Bashar al-Assad's hope of ever reclaiming northern and eastern Syria, the New York Times reports. The rebels posted a video of them destroying a statue of al-Assad's father—former President Hafez al-Assad—in...

US May Give Direct Aid to Syria Rebels

Washington Post: Expected policy shift does not include weapons

(Newser) - The Washington Post reports that the US is poised to give direct aid to Syrian rebels for the first time. That doesn't mean weapons, however. Think body armor, military vehicles, humanitarian assistance, and maybe military training. John Kerry is expected to hash out the details this week and next...

In Sea Change, Saudis Arming Syrian Opposition

Plus, opposition agrees to attend international summit

(Newser) - A big shift in the Syrian conflict: Saudi Arabia is arming the opposition. It's a decidedly more activist approach than had previously been taken by regional and Western powers, the New York Times reports, and it signals an attempt to counter the weapons Iran is sending to Bashar al-Assad'...

Syrian Rebels' New Cash Source: Stolen Artifacts

Fighters have become 'archeologists': rebel

(Newser) - Short on funds, Syrian rebels have been turning to a new source of income: selling snatched artifacts. "Some days we are fighters; others we are archeologists," says a rebel who counts ancient Sumerian tablets among his finds. Fighters, who control most of the top archeological areas, say a...

Assad: Syria Can Handle 'Any Aggression'

As Ehud Barak confirms Israel was behind Wednesday's aggression

(Newser) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says his military is capable of confronting any "aggression" that targets the country. The comments by Assad are the first since an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday that US officials say was targeting a convoy of anti-aircraft weapons inside Syria bound for Hezbollah. Assad's remarks...

Assad&#39;s Wife Pregnant
 Assad's Wife Pregnant 
Jan 29, 2013 12:37 AM CST

Assad's Wife Pregnant

Syrian leader's wife expecting 4th child, Lebanese paper says

(Newser) - Bashar al-Assad has taken time out of his schedule extinguishing thousands of lives to create a new one, at least according to a Lebanese paper sympathetic to the Syrian leader. The paper mentioned the pregnancy of Assad's wife, Asma, in an article that described the leader as confident of...

As Syria Unravels, Israel Threatens Hit on Chemical Weapons

Chemical arsenal won't be allowed to fall into Hezbollah's hands, officials warn

(Newser) - Israel has warned that it will launch a strike to prevent Syrian chemical weapons from falling into the hands of Hezbollah or other extremists, the AP reports. Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom told reporters that top security officials met last week to discuss the threat Syria's chemical weapons pose....

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