Free Republic

Since al-Qaeda-affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) conquered Damascus with the help of Turkey in December 2024, HTS fighters and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militants have committed massacres against religious minorities in the country. Social media posts show Alawite or Christian men, women, and children barbarically shot at close range. And the death toll is increasing. The Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and all the East, John X, said during a sermon on March 9th: 'The bloody events taking place on the Syrian coast left many dead and wounded. … In many cities, towns, and villages, their...

The original mission of the Central Intelligence Agency, when created by the National Security Act of 1947, was collecting intelligence, but for 77 years, it has conducted covert and para-military operations around the world. Many believe that the CIA is the heart of the Deep State which runs our government, irrespective of whomever “we the People” may elect to office. The techniques the CIA developed and perfected overseas — including toppling governments — are usually described as “Operations” or “Projects.” Although highly classified at the time, the public has learned about many of those activities, which are summarized here as...

Recent reports in the Arabic and Turkish media and social media claim that Turkey intends to establish new military bases in Syria as part of a defense agreement with the new Syrian government formed by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) under the leadership of Ahmed Al-Sharaa (aka Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani). Turkey has been the primary supporter of HTS, which has a jihadist background “Damascus and Ankara are drafting a mutual defense agreement that includes the establishment of two bases in Homs and Damascus and the deployment of an air defense system against Israeli attacks.”

The United States has raised concerns with Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, the new foreign minister in Syria’s transitional administration, over recent reports of violent attacks carried out by militant groups across the country, US officials told Axios on Monday. According to the report, US officials fear that reprisals by militants aligned with the rebels who ousted the Assad regime earlier this month, especially those targeting minority communities or individuals associated with the ousted regime, could jeopardize stabilization efforts in the war-torn nation. Al-Shibani serves as the chief aide to Ahmed al-Sharaa, the de facto leader of Syria and head of Hayat...

Senior diplomat Barbara Leaf says she received 'positive messages' on fighting terror from Ahmed al-Sharaa; new leaders say they wish to contribute to 'regional peace' A senior US diplomat told Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Friday that Washington was scrapping a reward for his arrest, and welcomed “positive messages” from their talks including a promise to fight terrorism. Barbara Leaf, Washington’s top diplomat for the Middle East, made the comments after her meeting with Sharaa in Damascus — the first formal mission to Syria’s capital by United States diplomats since the early days of Syria’s civil war. The country’s...

The threats to Israel from Syria remain despite the moderate tone of rebel leaders who ousted President Bashar al-Assad a week ago, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday, amid military moves by his country to counter such threats. "The immediate risks to the country have not disappeared and the latest developments in Syria increase the strength of the threat - despite the moderate image that the rebel leaders claim to present," Katz told officials examining the country's defense budget, according to a statement. Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, said on Saturday that Israel was using false pretexts...

President-elect Donald Trump is blaming former President Obama for the current conflict in Syria, in which the Syrian government fell after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and rebel forces seized control of Damascus, prompting Syrian President Bashar Assad, his wife, and his three children to flee Syria on Saturday. Trump accused Obama of failing to intervene in the 2013 conflict when the Syrian government used chemical weapons as a form of attack. Obama had said that was the “red line” that would have moved the U.S. to get involved. “Russia, because they are so tied up in Ukraine, and with the...

Meeting on the margins of the Doha Forum, in Qatar, Turkey, Russia, and Iran urged the Syrian opposition to heed the call to end the fighting and to preserve Syria as an integrated and united country.Amid reports that Russian diplomats are fleeing Damascus in the face of the lightning opposition advance...Earlier this year, Assad had refused to speak to Turkey so long as Turkish forces remained in Syria. This refusal led the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to give the implicit green light to militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) last month to mount its stunningly successful attacks on Aleppo, and...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination on Sunday, as rebels said they had infiltrated the capital with no sign of army deployments. Syrian army units abandoned their positions on the outskirts of Damascus on Saturday night, fleeing the advance of rebel forces. The military said it was “reinforcing” defensive lines around the capital, which appeared to have collapsed. Mohammed al-Rahmoun, the Syrian interior minister, earlier said there was a “very strong security cordon on the outskirts of Damascus and no one can break it”. But the Syrian opposition fighters early on Sunday disproved this,...

HTS rebel commander says forces have begun to enter Homs War monitors, the leader of the HTS fighters and pro-government media all reported late on Saturday that forces loyal to President Bashar Assad had largely withdrawn from the country's third city, Homs. The head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdurrahman, said Syrian troops and members of different security agencies had withdrawn from Homs, and that HTS forces had started to enter the suburbs.

Syrian opposition fighters have reached the suburbs of the Damascus capital for the first time since the region was recaptured by government troops in 2018, as president Bashar al-Assad's regime nears collapse. One resident said the city was on edge, with security forces on the streets and many shops running out of staple foods. The Syrian army withdrew from much of the country's south on Saturday but later said it was fortifying positions in the Damascus suburbs and in the south. Syria's state news agency denied reports that Assad had already fled to Russia claiming he continued to govern from...

Tens of thousands of people are fleeing Syria's third-largest city Homs amid reports that rebels are closing in, just over a week since they launched their lightning offensive. The rebels seized Hama to the north on Thursday, a second major blow to President Bashar al Assad who lost control of Aleppo last week. The leader of the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, told residents of Homs "your time has come". Rebel forces began the biggest offensive against Syria's government in years last week. They have been advancing south, and Homs would be the next stop...

LLast week, apparently catching the world by surprise, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels launched a surprise offensive against government-controlled positions in northwestern Syria. Within 72 hours, incredibly, they had expelled Assad’s troops from large swathes of Aleppo. HTS’s triumph restored a rebel presence to Aleppo for the first time in eight years and paved the way for the unfreezing of the Syrian Civil War. Predictably, Russian fighter jets – supporting their ally, Assad – responded by bombing rebel-held areas of Aleppo and Idlib. Iran-aligned Kataib Hezbollah and Fatemiyoun militias also joined the fight on the dictator’s behalf. Regardless of what...

Syrian insurgents fighting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have launched attacks in the central province of Hama, threatening to cut off government troops from a key route linking the capital, Damascus, with rebel-held Aleppo. The army was engaging in “violent confrontations” with armed groups in Hama, the Syrian state news agency, Sana, reported. Separately, a longtime independent war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Tuesday morning that rebel factions in the province had managed to seize several “towns in the last few hours”. “Syrian and Russian air forces carried out dozens of strikes on the area,”...

Iran-backed militants entered Syria yesterday to bolster dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime against the Islamist rebels who seized Aleppo. Militias crossed into the war-torn country from neighbouring Iraq, following a lightning offensive against the Syrian army by rebel forces from the hardline Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and Turkish rebel groups. Their seizure of Aleppo, Syria’s second city, and swathes of territory in the north of the country has reignited the deadly civil war in Syria and shocked its allies in Russia and Iran. President Assad blamed the West for the ‘terrorist escalation’, and accused the US and its allies...

CBN News. Because Truth Matters™

White House National Security Council spokesperson says US had nothing to do with Hayat Tahir Al Shams (HTS) offensive; Russia vows support for Damascus regime. News agencies|12.1.24 The United States on Saturday said Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad lost control of Aleppo because of his reliance on Russia and Iran. Syria's "reliance on Russia and Iran," along with its refusal to move forward with a 2015 peace process outlined by the UN Security Council, "created the conditions now unfolding," National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement. "At the same time, the United States has nothing to do with...

Extremist Syrian Islamist forces have seized control over much of Aleppo, the second-largest city in the war-torn country, raising significant new questions for the U.S. government about its policy in the highly volatile Syrian Arab Republic. "I think it is concerning if some elements of the anti-Assad forces get their hands on sensitive sites in Syria. There have been reports that they have seized the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center, which is where Assad’s chemical weapons program is housed among other military assets," Jason Brodsky, policy director for United Against Nuclear Iran, told Fox News Digital. He continued, "Given...

Life often takes us in unexpected directions, but Maria Sue Bell’s life has been more rollicking and full of surprises than most. Back in 1984 and 1985, Bell served in the Army National Guard and was on Army Active Duty until Jan. 31, 1986. In a warning sign of what was to come, the criminal complaint against Bell says that she “received an Other Than Honorable (OTH) Discharge deemed Good for Service in lieu of a Court Martial,” although the reason for this has not been disclosed and has now been overshadowed by far more serious misconduct: Bell was sentenced...

The group are wiping out rivals and taking areas of strategic interest to Turkey and Bashar Al Assad's government. Al Qaeda-linked militants in Syria are strengthening their grip on territory in western Aleppo’s rebel-held countryside, nearly 18 months after taking most of the neighbouring province of Idlib. A sudden campaign by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham last week caught Turkey and allied rebels by surprise (when they moved their forces to attack the Kurds near Manbij)... “Tahrir Al Sham chose the right moment to attack.”