September 11, 2014

U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking to the nation in a televised address, announced last night that he has ordered a sustained military campaign against the radical jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The campaign includes continuing air strikes in Iraq as well as launching strikes on ISIS forces in eastern Syria, a country racked by more than three years of civil war. An additional 475 military advisers are to be deployed to Iraq to assist the Iraqi army. U.S. military advisers are also to train and support moderate rebels in Syria, with the aim of retaking ISIS-controlled territory in Iraq and wiping out jihadist strongholds in Syria. However, the president emphatically declared, “We will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq.” The president’s strategy also involves stepping up counterterrorism efforts to cut off ISIS funding and to staunch the flow of ISIS recruits from Europe into the Middle East.

President Barack Obama announced last night that the U.S.military will launch strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq and eastern Syria. The government of Russia, a long-time ally of the family of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, denounced the United States plan as “an act of aggression.” (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

(World Book map)

“[ISIS] poses a threat to the people of Iraq and Syria, and the broader Middle East, including American citizens, personnel, and facilities,” noted the president. “If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region, including to the United States. While we have not yet detected specific plotting against our homeland, [ISIS] leaders have threatened America and our allies.”

The United States has already launched more than 150 air strikes against ISIS in Iraq and has armed Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting ISIS militants on the ground. In recent months, ISIS has taken control over great swaths of northern and western Iraq and eastern Syria. In late June, ISIS declared that it was establishing a caliphate on the territories it controls, to be known simply as “the Islamic State.” In the process, it has become notorious for its extreme violence, including the mass executions of civilians and the barbarous beheading of enemy soldiers and Western journalists.

In Moscow this morning, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign minister responded to the president’s address by denouncing planned air strikes in Syria. He declared that they would be “an act of aggression,” unless sanctioned by the United Nations (UN): “This step, in the absence of a UN Security Council decision, would be an act of aggression, a gross violation of international law.” Russia has been a long-time ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father, Havez al-Assad, who was president of Syria from 1971 to 2000.

In the Syrian capital, Damascus, National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar also denounced the air strikes: “Any action of any kind without the consent of the Syrian government would be an attack on Syria.”

Additional World Book articles:

• Kurdistan
• Umayyad caliphate
• Iraq War
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

July 16, 2014

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (AP/Wide World)

Bashar al-Assad was sworn in today for a third, seven-year term as president of Syria. Speaking at the presidential palace in Damascus, the capital, Assad claimed victory over those who tried and failed to overthrow him in the uprising that began in March 2011. Foreign correspondents attending the ceremony noted that Assad’s words reflect a growing sense that the tide has turned in favor of the government in Syria’s three-year-long civil war. Most major Syrian cities, including Damascus and Homs, are currently secured by government forces, and Assad is presenting himself as the only alternative to fanatical Islamist jihadists. “Assad has been highly successful at the strategy of regime survival at all costs,” a Western diplomat on the scene in Damascus commented to the London Guardian newspaper. “If he can hold on, people may come round to thinking that he is the only feasible partner in the fight against a common enemy” [that is, the jihadist organization known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)].

Using tanks and artillery seized in Iraq, ISIS insurgents captured much of eastern Syria during the past week, including the oil-rich Deir Ezzor province. The London-based Independent newspaper reported yesterday that ISIS militants are currently battling to break the resistance of Syrian Kurds in the region.

International affairs experts suggest that ISIS military advances in Syria, following victories in Iraq in June, are altering the balance of power in the whole region. Rebels not aligned with either the Syrian government or ISIS are being crushed, leaving Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States with no one to back in the Syrian conflict—with the possible exception of Bashar al-Assad himself.

In late June, ISIS declared that it was establishing a caliphate on the territories it controls in Iraq and Syria. The caliphate is to be governed by strict Shari`ah law under the leadership of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as caliph. The rebels demanded that all Muslims “pledge allegiance” to the new ruler and “reject democracy and other garbage from the West.”

Additional World Book articles:

• Umayyad caliphate
• Iraq War
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

June 26, 2014

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki confirmed today that Syrian jets carried out air strikes on Islamist militants inside Iraq’s border with Syria. Speaking to a BBC correspondent, Prime Minister Maliki also declared that he welcomed the air strikes as it left both countries “winners.” Sources in western Iraq have reported that on June 24, Syrian jets attacked positions held by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and that at least 30 people were killed. ISIS militants seek to establish a Sunni caliphate straddling the Syrian-Iraqi border to be ruled under strict Shari`ah law.

Nouri Kamel al-Maliki became prime minister of Iraq in 2006. (AP/Wide World)

International affairs experts note that the attacks align Maliki and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against a common enemy. The alliance comes as Iran and the United States are enlarging their presence in Iraq. (Iran, like Iraq, is largely Shi`ite.) Some 300 U.S. military advisers arrived in Baghdad this week, and American surveillance drones are flying over northern Iraq. Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, also arrived in Baghdad this week to survey Iraqi military defenses and the Shi`ite militias that he has armed and trained. A senior Iraqi intelligence official told a BBC correspondent that Iran is supplying Iraqi forces with weapons–including heavy machine guns, rockets, and multiple rocket launchers.

Additional World Book articles:

• Umayyad caliphate
• Sadr, Muqtada al-
• Iraq War
• Kurdistan
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

June 11, 2014

Islamist insurgents in Iraq today seized the northern city of Tikrit, just one day after taking Mosul, a city of some 2 million residents. The Sunni insurgents also occupied the strategic oil-refining town of Baiji, including the Baiji power station, which supplies electric power to Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Salahuddin province. A column of insurgent forces was reported to be driving toward Baghdad, which is only 95 miles (150 kilometers) south of Tikrit. Fighting is also reported in Samarra, 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

The insurgents–known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS)–now hold considerable territory in western and north-central Iraq as well as in eastern Syria. While Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has vowed to repel the jihadists, Iraqi army soldiers are deserting by the thousands. Leaving behind their weapons and uniforms, soldiers have disappeared into the estimated 500,000 people who have fled Mosul by foot. In the years following the U.S. occupation of Iraq in 2003, the United States spent $14 billion building an Iraqi army to safeguard the country after U.S. forces withdrew.

A second city in northern Iraq, Tikrit, has fallen to insurgents, who are reportedly advancing on Baghdad. (World Book map)

ISIS, which grew out of an al-Qa`ida-related terrorist organization in Iraq, is believed to have from 3,000 to 5,000 fighters in the country. Other members are in eastern Syria, fighting in the Syrian civil war. Facing the same jihadist adversary, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad today expressed solidarity with Prime Minister al-Maliki and the Iraqi armed forces. International affairs experts suggest that the Syrian civil war has, in fact, spread across the border into Iraq.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

May 30, 2014

Some 2,000 people, including 283 women and 567 children, have been killed so far this year by Syrian government air attacks in the northern city of Aleppo, reports the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based human rights group. The Syrian air force has dropped “barrel bombs” on the city in the government’s attempt to put down the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad. Barrel bombs, packed with explosives, are a crude and highly inaccurate weapon, generally rolled out of helicopters from a high altitude. They inflict massive damage, often devastating entire neighborhoods in the densely built-up areas of Aleppo controlled by rebel forces. The fighting in Aleppo has damaged much of the Old City, including the citadel and the suq, which are both UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Both rebels and government troops have for months attempted to end the stalemate in Aleppo, where the front lines have moved little in more than two years of fighting. Rebel-held areas of Aleppo have been subjected to fierce aerial bombardment since mid-December.

The forces of President Bashar al-Assad have destroyed much of the ancient city of Aleppo in their attempt to put down a rebellion. (AP/Wide World)

The rebellion in Syria, which led to the civil war, began in March 2011. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights–which has a network of activists in Syria reporting on the war–has tabulated that more than 162,000 people have been killed in the three-year conflict.

Additional World Book articles:

• Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

May 8, 2014

A massive explosion today in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo destroyed an historic, luxury hotel and triggered the collapse of several other buildings. A bomb, believed to have been set by rebel fighters, was detonated by remote control in a tunnel beneath the Carlton Citadel Hotel, adjacent to Aleppo’s medieval citadel and close to the city’s ancient suq. Government forces had been using the hotel as a base, and a number of security personnel and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are believed to have been killed in the explosion. The fighting in Aleppo has damaged much of the Old City, including the citadel and the suq, which are both UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Both rebels and government troops have for months attempted to end the stalemate in Aleppo, where the front lines have moved little in more than two years of fighting. Rebel-held areas of Aleppo have been subjected to fierce aerial bombardment since mid-December.

The last rebel forces withdrew from the city of Homs yesterday. Fierce fighting continues in the ancient city of Aleppo and across northern Syria. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

According to the BBC’s correspondent in Syria, government forces have just assumed control of Homs, where nearly 1,000 rebels and their families evacuated yesterday from the city’s last rebel enclave. The United Nations’s resident coordinator in Syria noted to the BBC that while the withdrawal marks the end of three years of resistance, Homs–Syria’s third-largest city–is “incredibly and comprehensively destroyed.” The BBC correspondent reports that government forces are holding their own against rebels in Damascus, the capital, but the stalemate between rebels and government troops in the north “seems as durable as ever.” The rebellion in Syria, which led to the civil war, began in March 2011.

Additional World Book articles:

• Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

September 20, 2013

Syria has begun reporting details of its stockpile of chemical weapons as part of a U.S.-Russia brokered deal, confirms the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a watchdog group based in The Hague, Netherlands. OPCW officials add that while more details from Syria are expected in the coming days, Syria is obviously going to miss its September 21 deadline to provide a full list of its chemical arms.

The deal–a framework for a plan to secure and destroy Syria’s stock of chemical weapons by mid-2014–was brokered on September 14 by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. It specified that Syria had until September 21 to submit a “comprehensive listing, including names, types, and quantities of its chemical weapons agents . . .”  Among other provisions, Syria must also give United Nations inspectors, scheduled to be on the ground by November, “immediate and unfettered” access to all chemical weapons storage, production, research, and development sites.

A United Nations inspector examines dismantled equipment used during the 1980′s and 1990′s in Iraq’s chemical weapons program. (Reuters/Getty Images)

The deal put on hold the threat of a U.S. military strike against Syria for allegedly using chemical agents in an attack on Aug. 21, 2013. The attack left more than 1,400 Syrians dead, including hundreds of children. In a nationally televised address, President Barack Obama argued that the United States had a moral obligation to consider a military strike against Syria for the alleged chemical attack. “Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security, are at stake in Syria,” the president declared.

Additional World Book articles:

• Arab Spring
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of Rebellion (a special report)
• Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2012 (a Back in Time article)

September 11, 2013

In a nationally televised address last evening, President Barack Obama argued that the United States has a moral obligation to consider a military strike against Syria for allegedly killing more than 1,400 of its citizens in a chemical weapons attack on August 21. “Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security, are at stake in Syria,” the president declared. He acknowledged that “we cannot resolve someone else’s civil war through force, particularly after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Nevertheless, he argued, failing to act against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would erode an international ban against the use of chemical weapons and increase the likelihood that American troops “would again face the prospect of chemical warfare on the battlefield. And it could be easier for terrorist organizations to obtain these weapons, and to use them to attack civilians.”

President Obama, who faces widespread public and congressional opposition to military action against Syria, also said he was willing to postpone action to pursue a diplomatic initiative advanced earlier in the day by Russia. The initiative followed remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at a news conference in Europe. Asked whether there was anything Assad could do to avoid military action, Kerry declared that the Syrian president could surrender his entire stockpile of chemical weapons within the next week. In talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov then asked Syria to put its chemical weapons stockpile under “international control.” Lavrov noted that the weapons would be destroyed, presumably under the supervision of United Nations weapons inspectors. In response, Syria publicly acknowledged for the first time that it possesses chemical weapons and offered to sign the international treaty governing their use. Muallem also said Syria would identify chemical arms facilities to international observers and agree to dispose of the weapons.

A United Nations inspector examines dismantled equipment used during the 1980's and 1990's in Iraq's chemical weapons program. (Reuters/Getty Images)

In response, Kerry warned that the administration would not tolerate delays and avoidance tactics in implementing the plan. He also said the disarmament process must be “swift and verifiable.” Also on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said any agreement on Syria’s chemical weapons must include a promise by the United States and its allies not to threaten military action to enforce the agreement. The main rebel coalition fighting the Assad regime announced its opposition to the Russian plan. Coalition leaders said the plan was simply an effort to stall for time.

Additional World Book articles:

• Arab Spring
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of Rebellion (a special report)
• Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2012 (a Back in Time article)

September 5, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin opened the G20 group of nations summit in Saint Petersburg, Russia, today, stating that Syria would be discussed at a dinner later tonight, despite the fact that Syria is not formally on the agenda. United States President Barack Obama is seeking international support for military strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in response to alleged chemical weapons attacks on Syrian civilians. Russia and China have warned the United States not to take action without the backing of the United Nations Security Council. However, Russia and China have consistently vetoed attempts to bring pressure on Assad by the Security Council. Both have insisted that any solution to the Syrian civil war must be political.

In a surprising development, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced today that military action against Syria would be one of the topics discussed at the opening G20 dinner in St. Petersburg (AP/Wide World).

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 10 to 7 in favor of granting the formal military authorization for the strikes in Syria requested by President Obama. The vote paves the way for a full vote on the floor of the Senate next week. Before the vote, the committee accepted amendments proposed by Senator John McCain (R., Arizona) that explicitly call for the United States to seek to “change the momentum of the battlefield” in ways that would force Assad to resign. The amendment reads in part: “It is the policy of the United States to . . . create favorable conditions for a negotiated settlement that ends the conflict and leads to a democratic government in Syria. A comprehensive U.S. strategy in Syria should aim . . .  to degrade the capabilities of the Assad regime to use weapons of mass destruction while upgrading the lethal and non-lethal military capabilities of vetted elements of Syrian opposition forces, including the Free Syrian Army.” (The Free Syrian Army is the most moderate of the armed rebel groups operating in Syria since the start of the civil war; among other groups, the terrorist organization al-Qa`idain Iraq is known to have moved forces into Syria.)

Arizona Senator John McCain added amendments to the Senate resolution granting President Obama authorization for military strikes in Syria. The amendments call for a "change in the momentum of the battlefield" to force Assad's resignation. (U.S. Senate).

Political experts note that the U.S. House of Representatives—with its deep and persistent divisions amongst legislators, both liberal and conservative—is unlikely to pass the resolution as amended by Senator McCain. Many liberal members are afraid that military strikes might lead to a greater involvement in the conflict. Many House conservatives are either isolationists or fear that any further military intervention in the Middle East would add to deficit spending, pushing up the national debt.

Additional World Book articles:

• Arab Spring
• Chemical Weapons Convention
• Celebrating the City of the Czars (a special report)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of Rebellion (a special report)
• Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2012 (a Back in Time article)

September 3, 2013

President Barack Obama met with key congressional committee leaders to press for congressional approval of a military response to what American intelligence agencies believe was a chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government on its own people on August 21. The president told congressional leaders that any U.S. military strike on Syria will be “limited and proportional,” again declaring that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must be held accountable for the attack. According to U.S. intelligence agencies, the death toll from the attack on a Damascus suburb totaled 1,429, including 426 children. Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey also testified today before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Congress is expected to begin debate on the Syrian situation during the week of September 8.

A United Nations weapons inspector. (Reuters/Getty Images)

In Paris, French President Francois Hollande called for a united European response to the attack: “When a chemical massacre takes place,” he stated, “when the world is informed of it, when the evidence is delivered, when the guilty parties are known, then there must be an answer.” However, the British House of Commons voted on August 29 against participating in any military intervention in Syria.

Earlier today, the United Nations (UN) confirmed that the civil war in Syria has made refugees of more than 2 million Syrians. Many have fled Syria for either Turkey and Jordan. UN officials estimate that more than 100,000 people have died since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.

Additional World Book articles:

• Chemical weapons convention
• Syria: The Roots of Rebellion (a special report)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2012 (a Back in Time article)