Iraq
Iraq: oil boom amid sectarian war
Iraq unveiled an ambitious energy strategy to ramp up oil production to 4.5 million barrels per day by the end of next year—as sectarian violence escalates.
Tag: sectarian war
Greater Middle East
Bahrain court sentences protesters up to 15 years
A Bahrain court issued sentences to three activists for taking part in anti-government protests as well as attempting to kill a police officer in a clash at a Shi’ite village.
Greater Middle East
Lebanon’s hashish valley drawn into Syrian war
Lebanon’s hashish heartland of the Bekaa Valley is increasingly embroiled in the civil war raging across the border in Syria, with a wave of sectarian clashes and abductions.
Greater Middle East
‘Sunni cleansing’ in Syria?
Turkey sees in the battle for Qusayr a strategy to create an Alawite mini-state within Syria, purged of Sunni Muslims, to which the ruling elite can withdraw for a last stand.
Greater Middle East
Turkey to build wall on Syrian border
Turkey will build a 2.5-kilometer wall along the Cilvegözü post on the border with Syria, near where a twin bomb attack killed 51 and wounded more than 100 earlier this month.
Greater Middle East
Israeli air-strikes near Damascus
Israeli missiles struck a research center near Damascus, as massacres of Sunni families by pro-government militias are reported from Syria’s coastal Alawite stronghold.
Iraq
Ba’ath-Sufi convergence in Iraq insurgency?
The most senior member of Saddam Hussein’s inner circle still on the run, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, is said to be leading a band of insurgents from the Naqshbandi Sufi order.
Greater Middle East
Has Syria crossed chemical ‘red line’?
Israel's claim that Syria has used chemical weapons comes as rebel militias have assumed positions near the line of control in the Golan Heights.
Iran
Iranian Qaeda connection rears its dubious head —in Canada
Following last month's claims about al-Qaeda biggie Sulaiman Abu Ghaith having been sheltered by Iran, Canadian authorities boast breaking up an Iran-backed Qaeda plot.
Greater Middle East
US pledges $100 million in aid to Syrian rebels
As the Friends of Syria summit opened in Istanbul, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced $100 million in new “non-lethal” aid to the Syrian opposition.
Greater Middle East
Syria: Alawite dissidents break with regime
Opposition activists from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect publicly broke ranks with the regime at a meeting in Cairo, and urged their fellow Alawites in the army to rebel.
Afghanistan
Terror strikes Pakistan refugee camp
A car bomb exploded at the Jalozai displaced persons camp outside Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 15 and leaving some 50 injured.