Greater Middle East
Syria: endgame or wider war?
With pitched fighting in Damascus, the Internet is down across Syria. Russia meanwhile protests NATO plans to place missiles along Syria's border in Turkey.
Tag: Syria
Afghanistan
Pakistan to Lebanon: Shi’ites under attack
Bomb attacks on Shi’ite processions marking Ashura claimed lives in Pakistan, while Sunnis and Shi’ites clashed in Kabul and a planned attack on Shi’ites was thwarted in Lebanon.
Iraq
Iraq exports Islamist militants to Syria?
Arabic-language news services report that 15 accused al-Qaeda members who recently escaped from a prison in Tikrit, Iraq, are now leading insurgent groups in Syria.
North Africa
Petraeus prostration: Benghazi blowback?
David Petraeus was scheduled to testify before Congress on the Benghazi attack when he was brought down by a sex scandal. Did the FBI instrument the revelation to silence him?
Greater Middle East
Lebanon: top security official killed in car bomb
A top Lebanese security official who was bitterly opposed to Syrian leader Bashar Assad was killed in a car bomb in Beirut that also claimed the lives of seven others.
Greater Middle East
Al-Qaeda faces Syrian revolution with ‘crossroads’
A blogger in Aleppo notes the growing presence of al-Qaeda militants in the insurgent forces, and writes that the Free Syrian Army must purge them or forfeit support from abroad.
Iran
Tehran protesters: ‘Forget Syria!’
At angry protests over economic conditions in Tehran, slogans included “Allahu akbar!” (God is great, associated with the 1979 revolution) and “Leave Syria alone, instead think of us!”
Greater Middle East
Turkey authorizes Syria ‘military operations’
Turkey’s parliament in an emergency session authorized military action against Syria following deadly cross-border fire—while insisting it was not a war mandate.
Iran
Unprecedented maneuvers in Strait of Hormuz
With two US warships headed for Libya, 25 nations led by the US are converging on the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz for naval maneuvers on an unprecedented scale.
North Africa
The left and the jihad: love-hate relationship?
"Leftists" in the West are waxing paranoid about how the Syrian revolutionaries are a bunch of jihadists. But if the West intervenes in Mali, they will likely be rooting for jihadists—again.
Iran
Syria: flashpoint for war with Iran?
With Tehran revealed to be supplying Damascus with arms through Iraqi airspace, events in Syria could be propelling the US towards unprecedented military commitments.
Greater Middle East
Syria: 1.2 million displaced, 3 million face hunger
Aid workers protest that while media reports on Syria focus on the political stalemate, a humanitarian crisis grows, with over a million displaced and 3 million facing hunger.