Syria’s civil war: The killing fields | The Economist

IS IT because America and Europe have tired of their own wars that they have started to turn their back on other people’s? The number of dead in Syria has passed 30,000. Some days over 250 bodies are added to the pile, which brings to mind Iraq at the insurgency’s peak in …

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Beirut car bomb kills top security official | Reuters

A huge car bomb explosion in Beirut on Friday killed a top Lebanese security official whose investigations implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the assassination of former Lebanese prime …

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Jihadists Receiving Most Arms Sent to Syrian Rebels – NYTimes.com

Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, according to American officials and …

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Turkey Says Syrian Jet Carried Russian Arms – NYTimes.com

Turkey’s confrontation with Syria spread on Thursday to include Russia, Syria’s principal military ally, when Turkey’s prime minister said Russian munitions intended for Syria’s government had been impounded from a …

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U.S. Military Sent to Jordan on Syria Crisis – NYTimes.com

The United States military has secretly sent a task force of more than 150 planners and other specialists to Jordan to help the armed forces there handle a flood of Syrian refugees, prepare for the possibility that Syria will lose control of its …

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Citing U.S. Fears, Arab Allies Limit Aid to Syrian Rebels – NYTimes.com

For months, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been funneling money and small arms to Syria’s rebels but have refused to provide heavier weapons, like shoulder-fired missiles, that could allow opposition fighters to …

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Islam and the protests: Rage, but also self-criticism | The Economist

AFTER the noon prayer in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on September 14th, a copiously bearded speaker delivered a rousing, finger-wagging open-air sermon. Thundering against the incendiary anti-Muslim film trailer that recently appeared on the internet, he warned his brothers to prepare for battle, urging them to take up weapons against incoming “Crusader armies”. Soon after, youths resumed a rock-throwing assault on police protecting the nearby …

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Syria’s crisis: No refuge | The Economist

THE war in Syria touches not just the men fighting, but increasingly women, the elderly and the very young too. Khatoon al-Bustan and her nine children gather under an olive tree in the orchards around Atmeh, a small town near the border with Turkey. The 47-year-old Syrian fled with her family five days ago from their house in …

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War and diplomacy in Syria: No letting up | The Economist

LAKHDAR BRAHIMI, the experienced Algerian peacemaker who recently replaced Kofi Annan as the UN’s special envoy for Syria, describes his new task as “nearly impossible”. That seems a sound judgment. Syria’s beleaguered but ruthless regime refuses to talk to its opponents until they lay down their arms. For their part, the outgunned, fractious but resilient rebels will not …

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Syria’s crisis: The devastation of Daraya | The Economist

IT IS difficult to distinguish one gruesome day from the next in Syria until the devastation of a town is so great that it earns itself a place on the conflict’s increasingly bloody …

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Attack Kills Syrian Defense Minister in Damascus – NYTimes.com

President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law and Syria’s defense minister were killed on Wednesday when a suicide bomber attacked a crisis group of senior ministers and security chiefs meeting in central Damascus, according to …

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Bloodshed in Syria: Houla’s horror | The Economist

COULD the massacre on Friday of over 100 people in Houla, an area of several villages close to Syria’s third city of Homs, mark a turning point in Syria’s bloody uprising? Politicians around the world expressed outrage after the UN confirmed that 49 children, many under the age of …

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