Free Republic

Thousands of Syrians were stuck in and around Aleppo on Saturday as a deal to evacuate two Shi'ite villages in return for Sunni rebels and their families being allowed to leave two besieged towns near Damascus stalled, a monitor and activists said. Rebels and civilians who had left Madaya near Damascus on Friday sat outside rows of coaches in government-held Aleppo city...

April 13 (UPI) -- North Korea and Syria reconfirmed friendly ties on Wednesday, according to Pyongyang's state media. KCNA reported Thursday Syria's top diplomat to North Korea, Ambassador Tammam Sulaiman, held a banquet to commemorate the upcoming birth anniversary of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung. "On the occasion of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung's birthday, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Syria Arab Republic, Tammam Sulaiman, held a banquet at his embassy," Pyongyang stated. [snip] "Goodwill established between the past leaders of Syria and North Korea continue unchanged for generations," the Syrian diplomat reportedly said. "We...

They marched past bullet-riddled storefronts, bombed-out apartment blocks and makeshift shrines to pro-government “martyrs” lost in the war. Clergymen hoisted on their shoulders a miniature coffin filled with flowers, a symbol of the death of Christ on this most solemn day of Holy Week. Soldiers and black-clad militiamen toting AK-47s provided a measure of security in a pulverized city where rebel car bombs and suicide attackers remain a constant threat. The Good Friday evening procession through the narrow streets of this war-traumatized city highlighted how a reeling but resilient Christian community is gradually coming back to their roots in Homs’...

The United States has concluded that Russia knew ahead of time that Syria would launch a chemical weapons attack last week, ... The official offered circumstantial elements ..., but no concrete proof. ... others in the Trump administration cautioned that final American determination had been made that Russia had advance knowledge of the attack, which killed more than 80 people and prompted retaliatory U.S. cruise missile strikes. The senior official said Monday that a drone operated by Russians was flying over a hospital as victims of the attack were rushing to get treatment. Hours after the drone left, a...

(CNSNews.com) – At a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday, Russia’s foreign minister said that ousting Bashar al-Assad as Syria’s dictator is something the Russians will not pursue, because it won’t end well. “A successful ouster of a dictator is, for me, very hard to remember. If you have any examples, I’d be glad if you could share them with me,” Lavrov told the news conference. Lavrov said the Russians want Syria’s government to be “democratic” and “secular.” All ethnic groups should feel protected and share power. He said that requires a new constitution. And...

Juxtaposition. The way to analyze the situation is to look at the factions comparatively. You do not compare Assad’s regime to the Danish or Norwegian governments, but to the alternative. The question becomes if there is anything in the left column that is worse than the right column?

The Syrian Arab Armed Forces are receiving 10 examples of the Sukhoi Su-24M2 'Fencer-D' attack aircraft from Russia, augmenting an unknown number of existing 'Fencers'. Jon Lake reports. Before the on-going deliveries began, Syria had received 22 Su-24s in total. Some 20 downgraded Su-24MK export versions were delivered from the Soviet Union in 1990, and these were augmented in the mid-1990s by single examples of the Su-24MK and the Su-24MR reconnaissance aircraft, which were donated by Libya after Syria provided support for Libya’s own ‘Fencer’ fleet. The aircraft are operated by 819 squadron at T4 (Tyas) Airbase in Central Syria,...

It appears that Mike Cernovich, who earlier this week wrote that Trump's national security advisor, Gen. H.R.McMaster, was planning on sending as many as 150,000 troops to Syria, may have been right again. According to Bloomberg commentator Eli Lake, who has now made a habit of confirming Cernovich "conspiracy theories" (he did so previously with the Susan Rice scoop), Trump may be on the verge of escalating the proxy war in Syria by sending anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000 troops on the ground, and - if Cernovich is indeed correct - as much as three times more. Per Lake, after...

The Instagram account of Bashar Assad's wife is adorned with tender snapshots: Asma Assad reading to Syrian children; holding an infant inside a maternity hospital in Damascus; embracing the family of a Syrian who was killed in the nation's civil war – all with the affectionate hashtag #WeLoveYouAsma. It’s a stark contrast to the photos flooding news channels showing Syrian children lying dead in the streets after choking on poison gas that the U.S. and its allies said was unleashed by her dictator husband.

In a particularly divisive interview Wednesday night on “Tucker Carlson Live,” conservative pundit and provocateur Ann Coulter shared her opinion on the escalating situation in Syria: “It's very hard to explain the Syrian attack, it's certainly not a vital national security interest, we generally don't at least conservatives don't go rushing around the world for humanitarian reasons. For that region of the world, Assad is one of the better leaders, there are probably only one or two better than him.” Coulter then claimed that the Syrian dictator wasn't quite “a Saddam Hussein murderous thug,” saying that Assad helped the U.S....

After Trump bombed a Syrian airbase in retaliation to a chemical weapons attack the democrats and mainstream media have been singing Trump’s praises. Tucker Carlson had democrat strategist Al Mottur on his show to explore why the democrats are now supportive of war. “When did the democrat party become the war party,” Carlson asked. “Of course we’re not happy we are moving toward war. My point is that I’m happy that this administration is taking Russia seriously and Secretary Tillerson sent the right signals today in his meeting with the foreign minister,” democrat strategist Mottur replied… Carlson continued, “The Prime...

“On behalf of the General Command of Wrath of Euphrates, we declare the commencement of the 4th stage to cleanse the remaining IS-held region in the northern countryside and Wadi Jalab from IS gangs, eliminating obstacles, and preparing for a complete grip of the city and besieging the gangs within the city”.

Update 2:  The Pentgaon has admitted to mistakenly killing 18 Syrians in an airstrike on April 11th... U.S.-LED COALITION AIR STRIKE IN SYRIA MISTAKENLY KILLED 18 SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC FORCES PERSONNEL ON APRIL 11 -PENTAGON - CENTCOM says strike near Taqbah accidentally killed 18 Syrian Democratic Forces fighters on April 11. Had been identified as ISIS position. pic.twitter.com/vUXC8ueek7— Erin Cunningham (@erinmcunningham) April 13, 2017   Update 1: Russia has reportedly dispatched drones to the area to confirm Syria's reports. The Russian military said that it has no information confirming the reports of death as a result of the US-led coalition's...

In ordering Friday’s strike on a Syrian airbase, President Donald J. Trump sent the U.S. military into combat without Congress’s blessing. He has punished the Assad regime for its use of sarin nerve gas on its own people and only begun to correct the mistakes the Obama administration made when it allowed the Syrian civil war to metastasize into a conflict that is destabilizing the Middle East. For its troubles, however, the Trump administration has come under fire from his conservative flank. Libertarian senator Rand Paul demands that Trump seek congressional authorization, while distinguished conservative law professor Mike Paulsen and...

Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain released a joint statement on Tuesday urging President Donald Trump to bolster ground efforts in Syria. "As part of a broader strategy, we urge the President to take greater military action to achieve our objectives, including grounding the Syrian air force and establishing safe havens inside Syria to protect Syrians,” the statement reads. “There will never be a diplomatic solution as long as Assad dominates the battlefield,” according to McCain, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, and Graham, who chairs an appropriations subcommittee.

MOSCOW –  Striving to salvage ties amid a fierce dispute over Syria, the United States and Russia on Wednesday agreed to work together on an international investigation of a Syrian chemical weapons attack last week that prompted retaliatory American missile strikes. Washington blames Russia's ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Moscow says Syrian rebels are responsible. After a day of discussions with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the former Cold War foes agreed a U.N. probe of events in northern Syria on April 4 was necessary. More than 80 people were killed in...

The US military and intelligence community has intercepted communications featuring Syrian military and chemical experts talking about preparations for the sarin attack in Idlib last week, a senior US official tells CNN.

A professor who challenged the 2013 claims of a chemical attack in Syria is now questioning the Trump administration’s narrative blaming the Assad government for the April 4 attack in the Idlib province town of Khan Shaykhun. On Tuesday, the White House released a declassified intelligence brief accusing Syrian President Bashar Assad of ordering and organizing the attack, in which Syrian planes allegedly dropped chemical ordnance on civilians in the rebel-held town. The report “contains absolutely no evidence that this attack was the result of a munition being dropped from an aircraft,” wrote Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Professor Theodore...

Cruz, up for reelection in 2018, is back home in Texas on a “two-week listening tour” with voters. In an interview with NBC 5 reporter Julie Fine, he explained the problem with pursuing regime change in Syria without a clear strategy or end game. "We are trapped between impossible options. On one hand, Bashar al-Assad is a monster. He has repeatedly used chemical weapons against his own citizens, against innocent men women and children. He is a bad, bad guy,” Cruz said. [cut] “But on the other hand, the opposition – many of the rebels fighting against him – are...

Trump told Xi of Syria strikes over 'beautiful piece of chocolate cake' President reveals missiles were launched as he and Chinese counterpart had dessert after dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate Tom Phillips in Beijing Wednesday 12 April 2017 16.09 BST Donald Trump informed the Chinese president that he had launched missile strikes on Syria as the pair ate “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you have ever seen”, the US president has claimed. In an interview with Fox Business, Trump offered his first account of how he had broken the news to Xi Jinping as they dined at...