May 20, 2013
"It’s, at the very least, an unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering. So, it’s ill-timed and very unfortunate. It pushes the standoff distance a little more, increases risk, but not impossible to overcome. What I really worry about is that Assad will decide that, since he’s got these systems, he’s somehow safer."

— Army General Martin Dempsey, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, criticized Russia for sending advanced missiles to Syria.

3:17pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-aylRvhAI
Filed under: Martin Dempsey Syria Russia 
May 4, 2013
The family and employer of James Foley, a U.S. journalist missing in Syria since November, say they now believe he is being held by the Syrian government in a detention center near the capital, Damascus. That conclusion follows a five-month investigation by Foley’s family and his employer, GlobalPost, and was announced on Friday in an article posted on the news organization’s website. “With a very high degree of confidence, we now believe that Jim was most likely abducted by a pro-regime militia group and subsequently turned over to Syrian government forces,” GlobalPost CEO and President Philip Balboni said, according to the article. He went on to say that GlobalPost believes Foley was being held in a prison or detention facility “in the Damascus area.” Foley is believed to have been kidnapped in November of last year in northwest Syria, soon after he crossed the Turkish border by car. He has worked in the Middle East for the past five years, for GlobalPost and other news organizations, according to a website set up by his family, freejamesfoley.org . Two years ago, while on assignment for GlobalPost in eastern Libya, Foley was arrested and held for 44 days. (Source)

The family and employer of James Foley, a U.S. journalist missing in Syria since November, say they now believe he is being held by the Syrian government in a detention center near the capital, Damascus.

That conclusion follows a five-month investigation by Foley’s family and his employer, GlobalPost, and was announced on Friday in an article posted on the news organization’s website.

“With a very high degree of confidence, we now believe that Jim was most likely abducted by a pro-regime militia group and subsequently turned over to Syrian government forces,” GlobalPost CEO and President Philip Balboni said, according to the article.

He went on to say that GlobalPost believes Foley was being held in a prison or detention facility “in the Damascus area.”

Foley is believed to have been kidnapped in November of last year in northwest Syria, soon after he crossed the Turkish border by car.

He has worked in the Middle East for the past five years, for GlobalPost and other news organizations, according to a website set up by his family, freejamesfoley.org .

Two years ago, while on assignment for GlobalPost in eastern Libya, Foley was arrested and held for 44 days. (Source)

1:50am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-aykB5gwX
Filed under: James Foley Syria 
April 25, 2013
A Free Syrian Army fighter and a boy hold up weapons on a street at the Syrian town of Tel Abyad, near the border with Turkey, April 23, 2013. REUTERS/Hamid Khatib

A Free Syrian Army fighter and a boy hold up weapons on a street at the Syrian town of Tel Abyad, near the border with Turkey, April 23, 2013. REUTERS/Hamid Khatib

11:54am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-ayjWYFnt
(Notes: 91)
  
Filed under: Free Syria Army Syria photojournalism 
April 2, 2013
More than 6,000 people were killed in the Syrian civil war last month, the deadliest month yet in the 2-year-old conflict, a leading activist group said. The March dead included 298 children, 291 women, 1,486 rebel fighters and army defectors and 1,464 regime soldiers, said the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources across Syria. The 588 other dead were unidentified but documented by individual photos and video, the observatory said.

7:53am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-ayhjaJbP
Filed under: Syria 
March 28, 2013
"In Turkey, riot police used a water cannon and tear gas against Syrian refugees who threw rocks as they protested against poor conditions at a camp near the border. The Suleiman Shah site is one of the largest in Turkey, housing roughly 35,000 people. Wednesday’s violence highlights a growing regional crisis as Turkey, Jordan and other countries struggle to accommodate more than one million people who have fled the two-year conflict between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the rebels."

— Turkish Police Fire Tear Gas at Syrian Protesters in Refugee Camp

9:15pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-ayhNN3mS
Filed under: Turkey Syria 
February 28, 2013
"We will continue to provide assistance to the Syrian people, to the Syrian opposition. We will continue to increase our assistance in the effort to bring about a post-Assad Syria and a better path forward for the Syrian people."

—

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney confirming plans to assist the Syrian rebels.

The Obama administration is increasing aid to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Washington Post reports the United States may provide military supplies, including body armor and armed vehicles. The New York Times reports U.S. training of Syrian rebels is underway at a military base in an unspecified regional country. At a summit today in Rome, Secretary of State John Kerry announced $60 million in new aid for the Syrian opposition.

2:28pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-ayfChvE4
Filed under: Jay Carney Obama Syria John Kerry Free Syrian Army 
February 21, 2013
A family was rescued from a house after a missile hit Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday. Hamid Khatib/Reuters

A family was rescued from a house after a missile hit Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday. Hamid Khatib/Reuters

12:44pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-ayegAsbJ
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: Syria Aleppo photojournalism 
February 21, 2013
A girl who returned from school cries upon seeing her house destroyed after a jet missile hit the al-Myassar neighborhood of Aleppo February 20, 2013. REUTERS/Muzaffar Salman

A girl who returned from school cries upon seeing her house destroyed after a jet missile hit the al-Myassar neighborhood of Aleppo February 20, 2013. REUTERS/Muzaffar Salman

12:42pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-ayegAHLP
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: photojournalism Syria Aleppo 
February 21, 2013
"Our homes are all destroyed. We have nothing; we left with only this. If Bashar (al-Assad) wants our country, let him have it. We came here after running from between homes, trying to avoid the shelling and the constant fire which rained down on us. If it wasn’t for the Free Syrian Army protecting us, we would have died under the rubble of our homes. Do these [pointing to her children] children look like terrorists? God help us!"

— Um Nasser, a Syrian refugee who fled in Jordan. A Jordanian border official said Monday nearly 90,000 Syrians have crossed into Jordan since the beginning of the year.

1:31am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-ayeejd29
(Notes: 5)
  
Filed under: Syria Jordan 
February 21, 2013
"The situation in Syria is getting worse. The violence is causing widespread destruction and having a devastating impact on the lives of ordinary Syrian women, men and children. We are crossing conflict lines, negotiating with armed groups on the ground to reach more people in need, but we are not reaching enough of those who require our help."

—

U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos, says much of the rebel-held north in Syria remains cut off from direly needed aid.

The World Health Organization is now reporting a typhoid outbreak in a rebel-held area of the northeastern province of Deir ez-Zor. The WHO says some 2,500 people have caught typhoid because they have been forced to drink from a contaminated section of the Euphrates River. In some of the latest violence, at least 31 civilians were killed Tuesday in a Syrian regime bombing of the city of Aleppo. Fourteen children were reportedly among the dead.

1:25am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-ayeeiqGW
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: Syria 
February 7, 2013
"It is an appalling situation in Syria today, appalling. And all these figures probably are not capturing the true story of how Syria, the people, but also Syria, the country, are facing systematic destruction."

—

The head of refugee operations for the Middle East and North Africa, Yacoub El Hillo, warned Syria’s violence is causing “systematic destruction.”

Activists in Syria are claiming more than 270 people have been killed in nationwide violence since Sunday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 90 people died across Syria on Monday after some 180 people lost their lives the day before. The toll includes dozens killed when a building was bombed in the northern city of Aleppo.

1:00pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-aydcD1zl
(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: Syria UN 
February 7, 2013
"Opposition activists in Syria are claiming new civilian casualties in the latest attacks on rebel strongholds around the capital Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 55 people, including 19 civilians, have been killed in a roughly 24-hour period since the regime of President Bashar al-Assad launched a new offensive on Damascus suburbs. Overall, the group says at least 141 people were killed nationwide on Wednesday, including 36 civilians. At the United Nations, a spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Syria’s “catastrophic humanitarian crisis” threatens to worsen ahead of the conflict’s upcoming two-year anniversary."

— U.N. Warns of “Catastrophic Humanitarian Crisis” in Syria as Dozens Killed

12:56pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-aydcC6qR
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: Syria UN 
January 29, 2013
"It’s really shocking, the scale of the devastation and, again, the cost and the amount of time that it will take to recover already, not to speak about, of course, the fact that this is going on in an unrelenting — unrelenting way. The state of living conditions for people now in Syria, across the board, are just quite appalling. And what strikes you most is when you go to the hospitals and you see how sick people are having to, you know, cope in medical facilities that are just so seriously under-resourced."

—

John Ging, the director of the U.N.’s humanitarian operations.

The United Nations is warning it could be forced to scale back food aid in Syria due to a lack of international funding. Ging said relief workers have already cut the nutritional count in food rations by half in the past two months. 

7:24pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-ayczAH31
Filed under: United Nations UN Syria 
January 23, 2013
A boy holds a piece of rock in reaction to firing from snipers loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo’s Bustan al-Qasr district, Syria, January 22, 2013. REUTERS/Zain Karam

A boy holds a piece of rock in reaction to firing from snipers loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo’s Bustan al-Qasr district, Syria, January 22, 2013. REUTERS/Zain Karam

11:42pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-aycWDW-7
(Notes: 24)
  
Filed under: Syria photojournalism 
January 9, 2013
A Syrian refugee walked toward his tent at Zaatari refugee camp, near the Syrian border in Mafraq, Jordan, Wednesday. Mohammad Hannon/Associated Press

A Syrian refugee walked toward his tent at Zaatari refugee camp, near the Syrian border in Mafraq, Jordan, Wednesday. Mohammad Hannon/Associated Press

7:59pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z6o-aybOXBoE
(Notes: 13)
  
Filed under: Jordan Syria photojournalism 
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