The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights assessed on Monday that over 162,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict – with thousands more missing, presumably captured or kidnapped by the Bashar al-Assad regime – as divisions within the opposition camp deepened worries that the West was showing insufficient...

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In the wake of allegations of Syrian of chemical weapons use, questions about Syria’s commitment to abide by the chemical weapons convention it signed onto last year, the capture of Homs by the Syrian government, and the ever-rising death toll, the United Nations’ special envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, announced his resignation...

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A Syrian plane attacked an aid convoy sponsored by a Turkish organization near the city of Aleppo killing one person. Agence France-Presse reports: Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said that trucks carrying flour and blankets were caught in the middle of an air campaign late Thursday by the Syrian Air Force...

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The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday angrily denounced reports printed by Western outlets alleging that the Islamic republic had supplied Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime with chlorine-filled chemical weapons (CWs): In a statement on Wednesday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry described the news as “a lie”, and said the fact that the...

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Israeli soldiers patrolling the Golan Heights can now see Islamist flags flying on the Syrian side of the border, The Tower has learned. Islamist groups have taken up positions to the south of Quneitra, the largest Syrian town close to Israel, particularly in the area of Kudneh.  “A-Raya flags with...

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Syrian rebel groups on Wednesday began clearing out of the strategic city of Homs under a deal that the Washington Post described as “loaded with poignancy for the opposition,” with hundreds of fighters allowed to carry only a single weapon as they boarded buses conveying them to the countryside. The...

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Lebanon’s NOW media outlet on Friday published a series of interviews and updates from the besieged Lebanese town of Tfail, which has been targeted by what NOW described as a “campaign of aerial bombardment against… civilians” by Hezbollah-backed forces loyal to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime: “For the past two nights,...

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The Daily Beast on Thursday cited a range of Western intelligence analysts converging on the assessment that Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime not only has a secret cache of undeclared chemical weapons – which the outlet said included “crude chlorine-filled bombs, secret stockpiles of sophisticated nerve gasses or their components” –...

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Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday conveyed angry remarks from Iranian officials in reaction to last week’s publication of the State Department’s annual country-by-country terrorism roundup: “Accusing Iran of supporting terrorism is politicized and based on double standards,” ministry spokesperson Marzieh Afkham said in a statement reported by the official IRNA...

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The State Department on Wednesday published [PDF] its annual country-by-country terrorism roundup, a 318-page document that veteran Associated Press diplomatic writer Matt Lee nonetheless described as “singl[ing] out Iran as a major state sponsor of terrorism that continues to defy demands it prove its atomic ambitions are peaceful.” The report...

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