syria
As ISIS continues to successfully blaze a path through territory and the digital landscape, Iraq's numerous stakeholders reassess their roles in ensuring the young republic's existence.
More than 100 Islamic prayer-leaders from various denominations of Sunni and Shiite Muslims have signed a letter calling on British Muslims not to travel to Iraq or Syria to fight. Security services say the influx of Western Muslims to Syria creates a threat to the West, when radicalized fighters return home from fighting in the region.
The announcement of a formal Islamic state by insurgents in Syria and Iraq is a "declaration of war against the West and al Qaida", an expert has warned. The Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (Isis) group has sought to solidify its leadership of worldwide jihad today by declaring that its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is the new caliph, or head of state.
White House says aid will help defend Syrian people, stabilize areas under opposition control, facilitate the provision of essential services, counter terrorist threats, and promote conditions for a negotiated settlement.
As Al Qaeda-inspired ISIS continues its violent march towards Baghdad, the group's social media outreach is being closely examined.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday, where he will pledge more aid to help Syria's neighbors deal with an influx of refugees and press Lebanese parliamentarians to swiftly choose a new president.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is running for re-election Tuesday, June 3, can be thankful his neighbors do not get to vote. Strong majorities of the publics in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Tunisia and Turkey and half the public in Lebanon voice a very unfavorable view of the embattled Syrian leader, according to a new Pew Research Center poll.
The aid situation in Syria—which has been dire ever since the start of the civil war—reached a desperate new low in May, with reports of government forces starving the residents of Homs to force a ceasefire, and with the NGO Mercy Corps revealing last week that the Assad regime had kicked its workers out of Damascus in retaliation for the group’s work in rebel-controlled areas. The United Nations has also publicly admitted that it has been threatened with imminent expulsion from the capital if it seeks to deliver aid elsewhere in the war-torn country.