March 1, 2016

Syria
Credit: WORLD BOOK map

On Saturday, February 27, the main warring factions in Syria began observing a cease-fire. A cease-fire does not mean peace or that the fighting is over. It simply means the main warring sides agreed to restrain their forces and stop shooting each other for a few days. Diplomats from the United States, Russia, and other countries helped arrange the cease-fire through the United Nations the week before. The cease-fire is meant to allow humanitarian aid to reach people trapped by the fighting. It is also a prelude to official peace talks, which would begin March 9 should the cease-fire hold to each side’s satisfaction. The cease-fire applies to Syrian government troops and their allies and the main rebel groups fighting against them. The deal does not include campaigns against such terrorist groups as the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of al-Qa`ida.

A number of violations have been reported in areas covered by the cease-fire, but, for the most part, the warring sides are honoring the agreement. Aid convoys have crossed enemy lines, and guns have fallen silent in many areas. Most fighting seems to have been reduced to areas contested by terrorist groups. Such areas are often poorly defined, however, as is the distinction between some rebel and terror groups. Work on ending the 5-year-old war has begun, but there is a long way to go.

September 23, 2014

Military forces from the United States and five Arab countries widened the war on the Islamic State (of Iraq and Syria)  (ISIS) by launching overnight the first air attacks on the jihadist group in Syria. American military officials said 14 strikes had destroyed or damaged ISIS training compounds, command and control facilities, vehicles, and storage sites in four Syrian provinces. Aircraft from Bahrain, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia participated in the attacks, while Qatar and the United Arab Emirates assisted in the operation. United States General Martin Dempsey, America’s highest-ranking uniformed military officer, said the strikes were conducted to show ISIS militants they had no safe haven. “We certainly achieved that,” he told reporters. The United States has already launched more than 190 air strikes against IS extremists in Iraq and has armed Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting IS militants on the ground.

In recent months, the ISIS has taken control over great swaths of northern and western Iraq and eastern Syria. ISIS is a Sunni Muslim group known for its severe interpretation of the Shari`ah, the legal and moral code of Islam. The group specifically targets rival Shi`ite Muslims, Christians, and anyone else it deems an “enemy of Islam.” The group has become notorious for its extreme violence, including the mass executions of civilians and the barbarous beheading of enemy soldiers and Western journalists. Foreign affairs specialists noted the significance of such countries with a Sunni majority, like Jordan and Saudi Arabia, participating in the campaign against the ISIS.

A refugee camp in Jordan is one of many housing the millions of Syrians who have fled civil war and the advance of IS forces in their country. (AP)

The Syrian air strikes are aimed at halting IS advances in the eastern part of that country. On September 19, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said IS extremists had seized 60 Syrian Kurdish villages near the Turkish border in a two-day campaign. The fighting sent some 130,000 Syrian Kurds fleeing into Turkey last weekend. Most of the refugees were from Kobani, a predominantly Kurdish town near the Turkish border. Syrian Kurdish forces reportedly halted the jihadists’ advance amid fierce fighting. In response to the flood of refugees, Turkey closed some border crossings with Syria. Before this latest migration, there were already more than 1 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, people displaced by the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in 2011. International affairs experts noted that the Turkish government is apprehensive about allowing large numbers of Kurds to enter the country. For 30 years, Turkish forces fought Kurdish separatists in a rebellion that left 40,000 people dead. Turkey also apparently wished to prevent Kurdish refugees from returning to Syria to fight the ISIS.

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)

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)

August 20, 2014

A year-long project to destroy the deadliest chemical weapons in Syria’s military arsenal has been completed, United States President Barack Obama announced on August 18. The announcement came a few days before  the first anniversary of a 2013 chemical attack, allegedly by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, that killed more than 1,400 Syrians civilians, including hundreds of children. The destruction of the chemicals, said President Obama, “sends a clear message that the use of these abhorrent weapons has consequences and will not be tolerated by the international community.” The Assad government has been fighting an open, armed rebellion since 2011.

The neutralization of Syria’s chemical weapons represents a major foreign policy achievement for President Obama, who had threatened military strikes against Syrian forces for their use of the weapons. That threat was put on hold in late September 2013 after Syria began reporting details of its chemical weapons stockpile as part of a deal brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The deal specified that Syria was to submit a “comprehensive listing, including names, types, and quantities of its chemical weapons agents. . . .  .”  Syria also agreed to give United Nations inspectors “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 destruction of the chemicals was overseen by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which won the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize. Based in The Hague, Netherlands, the OPCW was established to enforce the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which has contributed to the destruction of nearly 80 percent of the world’s stockpile of chemical weapons. About half of Syria’s 1,300-ton (1,180-metric-ton) stockpile was destroyed aboard the U.S.S. Cape Ray, an American military ship, in international waters. The rest of the chemicals were neutralized by facilities in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Finland.

While praising the destruction of the weapons as a “milestone,” Secretary of State Kerry also noted that questions about “discrepancies and omissions” in Syria’s weapons inventory remain. In addition, Syria has yet to destroy its chemical-weapons production facilities. Kerry also said that the Syrian government has continued to use chlorine gas against civilians, despite President Assad’s agreement to give up such attacks.

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)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)

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 10, 2014

Hundreds of armed men attacked Mosul, one of Iraq’s largest cities, this morning and seized control of the airport and army headquarters as well as local government offices and police stations. Hundreds of detainees are reported to have been set free, and many police stations torched. In Baghdad, the capital, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged that “vital areas” of the city are effectively under the control of Islamist militants and asked parliament to declare a state of emergency. “What happened [in Mosul] is a disaster by any standard,” declared Osama al-Nujaifi, speaker of the Iraqi parliament. “The presence of these terrorist groups in this vast province . . . threatens not just the security and the unity of Iraq, but the whole Middle East.”

According to the BBC correspondent in Beirut, militants with the Sunni jihadist organization Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have been informally controlling much of Ninawa province, of which Mosul is the capital, for months and are actively fighting across the border in the Syrian civil war. Experts on the scene believe ISIS is attempting to grab control of eastern Syria and western Iraq, apparently aiming to establish an Islamic state straddling the border.

Islamic militants are now in control of Mosul and Ninawa province in northern Iraq as well as parts of Al Anbar province in western Iraq. (World Book map)

In the past week, ISIS militants have killed scores of people in a series of major attacks on cities and towns in central, western, and northern Iraq. On June 7, more than 50 people died in a series of bombings in Shi`ite neighborhoods in Baghdad. That same day, militants stormed a university in Al Anbar province and took dozens of students hostage. ISIS has controlled parts of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, and much of the nearby city of Fallujah since late December.

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)

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)

January 14, 2014

The security situation in Iraq continues to rapidly break down. Yesterday, multiple car bombs exploded in several of Baghdad’s Shi’ite neighborhoods, killing at least 29 people. The attacks appeared to be coordinated with the arrival of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was in Baghdad to confer with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki. The secretary general reportedly scolded Iraq’s political leaders for not working together to “stop the senseless deaths of Iraqi women, children, and men.” More than 8,000 Iraqis were killed in 2013 as security deteriorated in and around Baghdad, the capital; hundreds more have died so far this month.

In restive Anbar province, a Sunni stronghold west of Baghdad, the city of Fallujah is currently under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a militant group with connections to the al-Qa’ida terrorist network. On January 12, fighting between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, commonly known as ISIS, and Iraqi government forces spread out of Anbar province to the very outskirts of Baghdad. Clashes between ISIS forces and the Iraqi army left at least 14 people dead near the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. In Ramadi, the other major city in Anbar province, militants captured and executed four members of an elite unit of the Iraqi military in an effort to retake control of the area.

Iraqi militants celebrate an attack on U.S. trucks in 2004 in Fallujah, the site of renewed fighting between Iraqi forces and Sunni rebels. The militants are again in control of the city. (© Karim Sahib, AFP/Getty Images)

ISIS is also actively involved in the civil war in Syria. Experts on the situation in Syria note that infighting between ISIS and the secular Free Syrian Army rebel group threatens to tip the balance among rebel forces. ISIS forces have increasingly come into conflict with the Free Syrian Army and other factions as Islamist militants attempt to enforce their strict form of Islamic Shari’ah law on areas under rebel control. The Free Syrian Army and the other factions have been fighting to bring down the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2011.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Iraq 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

October 25, 2013

At least 22 people—primarily babies and toddlers—are now believed to have contracted polio in Syria, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported this week. The polio outbreak is the first in Syria in at least 14 years. Before the civil war in Syria began in 2011, an estimated 95 percent of Syrian children were vaccinated against polio. The war, however, has crippled public health systems; fully half of the country’s hospitals have been destroyed or are so severely damaged as to be inoperable. According to UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) estimates, at least a half a million Syrian children, all under age 5, have not been immunized and are at risk of polio.

Some 5 million Syrians have been displaced by the civil war and generally live in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. Desperately short of food and medicine, many are living hand-to-mouth in parks, vacant buildings, or in cramped quarters with relatives. At least 2 million Syrian have left the country, and people continue to flood across borders in an uncontrolled manner. UNICEF spokesperson Simon Ingram points out that this exodus “increases the possibilities and means by which the [polio] virus can spread.” WHO has also reported increases in cases of hepatitis A, measles, and typhoid in refugee camps in Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey.

An infant receives a polio vaccination as part of a UNICEF immunization program. Polio remains endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Conditions in Syria recently led to an outbreak of polio there, as well. (AP/Wide World)

In 1988, WHO launched an immunization campaign that has largely eradicated polio in developed countries. However, the disease remains endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. A Taliban ban on vaccination in Afghanistan and Pakistan threatens to derail the dramatic progress made toward wiping out polio. The Taliban denounces vaccination as a Western plot to sterilize Muslims.

Additional World Book articles:

• Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Jordan 2012 Ia Back in Time article)
• Turkey 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Fighting a Persistent Foe (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

September 16, 2013

The United States and Russia agreed on September 14 on the framework for a plan to secure and destroy Syria’s stock of chemical weapons by mid-2014. The deal puts on hold the threat of a U.S. military strike against Syria for allegedly using chemical agents in an attack on Aug. 21, 2013, that left more than 1,400 Syrians dead, including hundreds of children.

This morning, the authors of a United Nations (UN) report on the chemical attack in Syria wrote that inspectors had found “clear and convincing evidence that surface to surface rockets containing the nerve gas sarin” were launched into suburbs around Damascus, the Syrian capital. However, the report stopped short of assigning blame for the attack. The United States has accused the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of carrying out the attack. Syria and its close ally Russia contend that rebel forces fighting to overthrow Assad were responsible.

The deal brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov specifies that Syria has 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 UN 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 final agreement needs to be backed by a resolution by the UN Security Council, which must approve any action against Syria if it fails to comply with the agreement. However, two of the five members of the council–Russia and China–have consistently opposed any efforts to impose sanctions on Syria for the brutality rained down on Syria’s civilians during the current civil war.

International affairs experts note the implementation of the agreement faces many challenges. Syria has not yet signed off on it. In addition, Russia and the United States have not agreed on the amount and location of Syria’s chemical stockpile. Moreover, the already difficult task of destroying the weapons will be greatly complicated by the country’s ongoing civil war. And no operation of this extent has ever been carried out by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which would have technical authority over the process.

In a nationally televised address last week, President Barack Obama argued that the United States has 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)