03 May 2016
An elementary school in Aleppo, Syria, damaged in fighting. Five years of civil war has put Syrians’ lives on hold.
Credit: Jerome Sessini/Magnum Photos
Featured
by Janine di Giovanni via The New York Times
Life in Syria five years into the civil war.
Inside Syria
via BBC News
Relief agencies evacuated 500 wounded people from four besieged Syrian towns, in what has been described as the largest such operation so far in the five-year conflict.
by Assad Hanna via Al Monitor
Islamist factions and opposition forces are taking advantage of "downtime" during the regime/opposition cease-fire to take on other enemies in Syria, but all the fighting could undermine the fragile truce.
Refugees
By Jeff Maison and Julia Edwards via Reuters
President Barack Obama said on Thursday he expected the United States would meet a goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees before the end of the year.
By Alex Barder via The Financial Times
Sanliurfa region makes long-terms plans for 410,000 fugitives from war across the border
Conflict Analysis
Contributor via Al Monitor
UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura warns that the cessation of hostilities is in “great trouble.”
via BBC News
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said the Syrian conflict is "in many ways out of control", as he made a fresh push to salvage a fragile truce.
By Eric Cunningham via The Washington Post
Fresh air raids and deadly clashes across Syria are threatening to unravel the country’s already fragile cease-fire, activists and rights monitors said Friday. The renewed fighting comes as peace talks brokered by the United Nations also are on the verge of collapse.
The Assad Files
Capturing the top-secret documents that tie the Syrian regime to mass torture and killings.
by Ben Taub via The New Yorker
Proxy Politics
via Al Quds Al Arabi and Mideast Wire
A few months after Russia took a decision to control the Syrian coast’s food basket, mainly citrus fruits, to replace the Turkish products which Moscow used to import
By David Ignatus via The New York Times
The battle for Mosul, about 35 miles north, must begin with the seizure of such Islamic State positions along the Tigris River. But the Iraqi army isn’t ready yet to take a small, well-fortified village such as Al-Nasr.
By Editorial Board via The New York Times
On the face of it, President Obama’s decision to send 250 more members of the military to Syria to fight the Islamic State may seem like a small move. The number is a far cry from the 180,000 American troops who were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan when he took office in 2009.
By Fehim Taştekin via Al Monitor
Despite Turkey’s blocking efforts, key Rojava actors PYD and YPG are opening office after office in Europe.
