Special to WorldTribune.com Al Qaida affiliate Nusra Front and its Sunni Islamist allies seized an Alawite village in central Syria on May 12. Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, an ultraconservative Sunni Islamic militant group, launched an assault on the village of Zara, killing more than 30 pro-Assad regime fighters, according to the Local Coordination Committees […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Russia’s air strikes against anti-Assad regime rebels may have united Syrian rebel factions in a way the hesitant Obama administration never could. A group of 41 Syrian rebel factions, in a joint statement, condemned Moscow’s attacks on rebel targets and vowed to take the fight to the Russian “occupiers.” Backed by Russian […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Iran and Turkey, who support opposing sides in the Syrian civil war, negotiated a 48-hour ceasefire on Aug. 12 after a month of behind-the-scenes negotiations. The ceasefire stopped fighting between Syrian insurgents, backed by Turkey, and Syria’s military and Hizbullah, supported by Iran. The rebel-held town of Zabadani and a pair of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — A leading Sunni rebel militia has been decimated. The leadership of Ahrar Al Sham has been eliminated in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. Opposition sources said at least 28 of 50 senior members of Ahrar, including its commander Hassan Abboud, were killed in what could have been an operation […]
Special to WorldTribune.com CAIRO — Egypt has reported the dismantling of three Al Qaida-aligned cells. Officials said security forces captured insurgency cells that targeted police officers. The officials said the cells included one aligned with Ajnad Misr, which emerged in January 2014. “Police efforts resulted in the arrests of terrorist elements of these cells, which […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is fighting to stop a Sunni rebel offensive in Syria. Opposition sources said ISIL has launched a major attack on Islamist militias amid an offensive against the regime of President Bashar Assad in the coastal Syrian province of Latakia. The sources […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — A leading Islamist rebel linked to Saudi Arabia has been assassinated in Syria. Abu Omar Al Shami, commander of the Saudi-financed Ahrar Al Sham, was killed in a suicide bombing on Feb. 23 in Aleppo. Al Shami, also known as Abu Khaled Al Suri, was attacked by five fighters from […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — Al Qaida has regained most of its strongholds amid the Saudi-sponsored rebel offensive in Syria. Opposition sources said Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has rebounded from an offensive by a Saudi-sponsored campaign, which began on Jan. 3. They said ISIL has regained many of the strongholds […]
Special to WorldTribune.com WASHINGTON — Gulf Arabs and their governments have been financing the Sunni revolt in Syria, a report said. Human Rights Watch asserted that leading clerics in several Gulf Cooperation Council states were raising money to fund Islamist militias in the war against Syrian President Bashar Assad. The New York-based group issued a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — Islamist militias have broken away from a Western-sponsored rebel coalition in Syria. Thirteen Islamist militias announced they would not cooperate with the Western-sponsored Syrian National Coalition. The militias said they did not recognize the authority of the new coalition, led by Ahmed Toumeh and financed by Saudi Arabia. “These forces […]