The Israeli security establishment and its neocon allies are divided between those who would destabilize Assad and those who would prop him with up as the Devil they know.
Hundreds of Yazidi women who escaped from ISIS sex slavery have formed an all-female battalion to join an assault against their former abusers in northern Iraq.
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.
The Syrian ceasefire announced in Munich does not apply to US or Russian air-strikes on "terrorists," and comes as Turkey and Saudi Arabia are preparing military intervention.
ISIS claimed responsibility for downing a MiG-23 from Libya's internationally recognized government as it carried out air-strikes in Benghazi—the third warplane lost in a week.
Unidentified warplanes carried out air-strikes on Libya's Islamist-controlled eastern city of Derna—reportedly claiming civilian lives when a hospital was struck.
The US aids Syrian Kurds against ISIS even as it acquiesces in Turkey's counterinsurgency against allied Kurdish forces just across the border—undermining anti-ISIS unity.
Mass graves at liberated Mount Sinjar are being disturbed, threatening critical evidence in proving possible genocide committed against the Yazidis, according to Human Rights Watch.
Counterpunch runs a piece of abject revisionism on the Syrian Revolution by Bouthaina Shaaban, official public relations advisor for the genocidal regime of Bashar Assad.
With Turkey insisting that the Syrian Kurds be barred from upcoming Geneva peace talks, Russia is pressing for their participation—while pursuing its grisly campaign of aerial terror.
A UN report details severe impacts on civilians from the ongoing conflict in Iraq, with 19,000 non-combatants killed last year, 3.2 million displaced, and an estimated 3,500 held in slavery.
The Taliban are pushing deeper into Sangin district of Afghanistan's Helmand province—a strategic stronghold due to its wealth in opium production.
