Tag: Alawites

Syria
SDF

Podcast: Free Syria and the Kurdish question II

In Episode 268 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the continued fighting in Syria since the fall of the Bashar Assad dictatorship in December. The recent outburst of violence in the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast made headlines, but this week also saw anti-regime protests by Druze in Syria’s south. And fighting has never stopped between forces aligned with the new transition government and those of the Kurdish autonomous zone in the northeast. The situation is complicated by continuing military adventures on Syrian territory by foreign powers—Israel, Turkey, Russia and the US. Will Syrians be able to overcome these challenges and forge a democratic and multicultural order, in repudiation of sectarianism, ethno-nationalism and Great Power intrigues? (Photo: SOHR)

Syria
Syria

External, internal challenges for Syrian Revolution

Apparent Assad loyalists have taken up arms against Syria’s transitional government in the Alawite heartland of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast. Fighting meanwhile continues between the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast, while Israel grabs a “security zone” in the south and continues intermittent air-strikes. Elsewhere in the south, the Druze of Suweida protest their perceived exclusion from the transition process. All this as Russia opens talks with the new authorities in a bid to keep its military bases in Syrian territory. (Map: PCL)

Syria

Book review: Impossible Revolution

This book is a necessary corrective to the dominant perception—left, right and center—that the opposition in Syria are all jihadists and dictator Bashar Assad the best bet for “stability.” Long a left-wing dissident in Assad’s Syria, Saleh is a veteran of the dictator’s prisons. Here, he traces the origins of the Syrian revolution to agony caused by the regime’s “economic liberalization” (socialist phrases aside), describes the initially unarmed opposition’s popular-democratic nature, and discusses the struggle to keep the Free Syrian Army accountable to this grassroots base after it became clear a military dimension to the revolution was necessary. He makes the case that the Assad regime can be termed “fascist” even by the most rigorous definition, and has been making good on its pledge to “burn the country” before ceding power. (Image: Haymarket Books)

Syria

Syria: US targets pro-Assad forces for second time

US jets attacked a convoy of Iran-backed militia forces loyal to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad—ironically within one of the new “deconfliction zones” established by the US and Russia.

Greater Middle East

Yemen and Syria: fearful symmetry

Russian counterinsurgency in Syria mirrors US-backed counterinsurgency in Yemen, betraying superpower rivalry and "cooperation" alike as inimical to the region's revolutions.

Greater Middle East

Are Rojava Kurds taking the Russian bait?

Syria's Rojava Kurds are accused of coordinating with Russian air-strikes to take territory held by Islamist factions—while Turkey warns them against any further advance.

Greater Middle East

Lines drawn in imperial scramble for Syria

The US and Russia each groom their own rival proxy forces to fight ISIS and the Nusra Front—which in turn pledge to turn Syria into "another Afghanistan."

Iraq

Sectarian massacres continue in Syria and Iraq

The Nusra Front fired hundreds of missiles into beseiged Alwaite villages in Syria, while ISIS claimed responsibility for suicide blasts that targeted Shi'ite areas of Baghdad.

Iraq

Russia launches Syria intervention

Russian fighter pilots are arriving in Syria, to begin sorties against ISIS and rebel forces—amid reports that Moscow's elite units are already fighting on the ground for the regime.