Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — Iranian-origin unmanned aerial vehicles have been seen flying over Syria. Witnesses and opposition web sites have reported the sighting of unidentified Iranian UAVs over Damascus and Homs. The reports included images of UAVs over major Syrian cities as part of what was termed counter-insurgency operations. The Open Source GEOINT web site […]
Special to WorldTribune.com WASHINGTON — The Syrian opposition, defeated several times by President Bashar Assad’s military, intends to reorganize in what is expected to result in new leadership. The opposition was to reassess policy and its leadership at a meeting in Turkey on March 22. Joshua Landis, a U.S. professor and director of SyriaComment, said […]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — The Syrian rebel movement, after more than six months of fighting, remains without a chain of command. A leading Middle East analyst who visited rebel strongholds said the Free Syrian Army remains collection of separate cells around Syria. Jonathan Spyer, an Israeli-based analyst who spent several days with FSA, said […]
Special to WorldTribune.com ANKARA — The regime of President Bashar Assad, amid its onslaught of Sunni rebels, appears to be losing control over northern Syria. Opposition sources said Assad’s military and security forces were disappearing from most of northern Syria. They said rebel elements, including those linked to the Free Syrian Army, have taken over […]
Sol W. Sanders Some old dead white man said: “All historical analogies are odious”. He meant they stink because time, place and dramatis personae of any historical event are so particularistic, drawing similarities with another event defies logic. Yet, yet … we amateur historians play at the game and often. And perhaps there is value […]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — The regime of President Bashar Assad, despite nearly a year of fighting, has been using only a fraction of its military might against the Sunni rebel movement. Regime sources said Assad, despite the massive assault on Homs, has reserved most of his military assets. They said the president did not […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Excerpted from an article by Yossef Bodansky, Senior Editor, Global Information System The intense fighting of late January and early February in Syria, coupled with the vastly improved manipulation of the jihadists there by Iranian intelligence … have already enabled Syria’s Bashar Assad administration to take control over the war in Syria. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — President Bashar Assad, strapped by a shortage of manpower, is said to have organized Alawite militias to quell the Sunni revolt in Syria. Opposition sources said the Assad regime has recruited thousands of young Alawites for military operations over the last four months. In most cases, the sources said, the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — Britain, in what could prompt other NATO members to do the same, has decided to equip the opposition against Syrian President Bashar Assad. Officials said the government of Prime Minister David Cameron would begin sending advanced non-lethal equipment to the Syrian opposition. They said this would include communications systems to […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — Syrian rebels have destroyed an oil refinery. State television said a rebel force attacked and shelled the refinery in Homs on Feb. 8. The report said two fuel storage tanks were bombed and set on fire. Syria’s energy sector has become a leading target of the rebel movement, based in […]