The uncounted: Life after war for Syria’s living martyrs
The Atlantic Council » SyriaSource
by Gregory Waters
3y ago
A band plays “Farewell to the Martyr” as men in crisp uniforms and red berets carry the casket of First Lieutenant Deioub out of the Martyr Zahi Azraq Military Hospital in Latakia, Syria. The pallbearers are flanked by more members of Bashar al-Assad’s military, as well as the Governor of Latakia province and the secretary of the local Baath party branch. Such scenes play out every day in hospitals across the country. For all Syrians, honoring the men who died fighting for their side’s cause is a central social event. But while martyrs are immortalized in life-sized posters on every street cor ..read more
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The relentless assault on Idlib
The Atlantic Council » SyriaSource
by Reema Hibrawi
3y ago
The relentless airstrikes campaign on Idlib by the Syrian regime and Russian air forces predicted by many analysts, including this author, remains a defining battlefield to the regime in the Syrian conflict, nine years later. Seen as a last opposition stronghold populated by extremists and a millions of civilians and internally displaced people (IDP), Idlib province and its surroundings are a deadly place. The ongoing assault against civilians in their market places, hospitals, schools, bakeries, mosques, refugee camps, and even prisons, is unbearable. As the attack in the southern town of Maa ..read more
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Looking back at 2019: Our top five blogs
The Atlantic Council » SyriaSource
by Reema Hibrawi
3y ago
It was an especially bleak year for Syria as displacement across the country continued especially in Idlib province. As families attempted to return from neighboring countries, they often times found themselves arrested, conscripted, or without a home to return. The Assad regime sought to normalize relations with its neighboring Arab states along with the encouragement of its patron, Russia. Unresolved were issues related to former Islamic State (ISIS) women members detained in northern Syria by Syrian Democratic Forces led primarily by Kurdish forces. The death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Bagh ..read more
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Hof’s analysis of Susan Rice’s Syria comments
The Atlantic Council » SyriaSource
by Frederic C. Hof
3y ago
Like former Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, Susan Rice—former US President Barack Obama’s last national security advisor—expresses deep personal sorrow for what has happened to Syrians since March 2011. But, like Power, Rice wraps her regrets in a narrative aimed at selling the proposition that there was, in the end, really nothing her boss could do to protect Syrian civilians from mass homicide; nothing short of involving the United States in another Iraq-like invasion and occupation and perhaps even World War III. The proposition is no truer coming from Rice’s pen than it wa ..read more
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Life after war: The impact of conflict on Syrian artists
The Atlantic Council » SyriaSource
by Natasha Hall
3y ago
After a scrawled graffiti message in Daraa, Syrian artists began to express themselves more than they ever could since the Assad family took power. Revolutionary art exploded on to the global scene during the Arab Spring. Particularly in Syria, artists, writers, and filmmakers found a new voice, free of fear. Defiance, grief, and frustration were themes which carried through multiple forms of media from fine art to the written word. However, eight years since the beginning of the revolution in Syria, the conflict which exiled these artists and, in some cases, brought them international fame, d ..read more
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Reconstruction and security sector reform in Syria must go hand in hand
The Atlantic Council » SyriaSource
by Nora-Elise Beck and Lars Döbert
3y ago
The structure and characteristics of the pre-conflict Syrian security sector contributed heavily to the outbreak of the Syrian civil war; for decades, it stood for corruption, discrimination, violent repression, and large-scale human rights abuses. When the Arab Spring began to unfold in Egypt and Tunisia in early 2011, a group of Syrian school boys got detained for writing anti-regime graffiti on a wall in the city of Daraa. For weeks, the boys were heavily tortured by security forces; a thirteen-year old died. Their families protested against the detention and treatment of their children, dec ..read more
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After the Syria withdrawal, it’s time the US rethinks the use of proxy forces
The Atlantic Council » SyriaSource
by Mona Alami
3y ago
The failure in Syria The foreign policy debacle in Syria, marked by US President Donald Trump’s speedy withdrawal of American troops, and a Turkish invasion in areas under control of Washington’s former ally the Syrian Democratic forces (SDF), is a humiliating end to the United States military intervention in Syria. Yet, the supposed American disentanglement from “forever wars” does not herald the end of ongoing proxy wars. On the contrary, it is likely the use of a proxy, which is a non-state actor supported by a state in a given conflict, will continue to be normalized in indirect conflicts ..read more
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The death of Baghdadi: How ISIS used al-Qaeda’s mistakes to grow a caliphate
The Atlantic Council » SyriaSource
by Amanda E. Rogers
3y ago
Optimistic predictions about the end of the Islamic State (ISIS) surged in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s October 27 press conference announcing the death of the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but prove misguided in the long term. The threat posed by ISIS remains high, particularly outside the para-state’s previously held territories in Iraq and Syria (to say nothing of affiliated organizations from Libya to the Philippines). The death of Baghdadi is highly unlikely to significantly impact the organization in any substantive manner. Initially, ISIS supporters remained quiet across ..read more
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Journalists in northeast Syria fear the return of state security services
The Atlantic Council » SyriaSource
by Dan Wilkofsky
3y ago
US President Donald Trump’s decision in early October to withdraw American troops from the Syria-Turkey border put the US’s local partner in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS, Daesh), the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in an unenviable position. Faced with an offensive by Turkey, NATO’s second largest military, the SDF struck a deal with its rival Damascus whereby the latter deployed troops across SDF territories in order to prevent the Turkish incursion from widening. International developments have now offered the SDF a temporary reprieve. An accord between the US and Turkey on Octo ..read more
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What the Turkish-Russian deal in Syria means for Vladimir Putin
The Atlantic Council » SyriaSource
by Frederic C. Hof
3y ago
Russia and Turkey have reached an agreement which, if fully implemented, would extend the “safe zone” desired by Ankara inside Syria to nearly the full length of the Turkish-Syrian border. If followed through, armed Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units) will have been removed from a strip 30KM deep into Syria, and Syrian refugees now in Turkey will be permitted to settle in the expanded safe zone “in a safe and voluntary manner.” Moscow will have confirmed the diplomatic marginalization of the United States in Syria. The Kremlin also seeks to convince Ankara that it is a more reliable partne ..read more
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