Author: Ruth Michaelson
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‘Ankara is getting what it wants’: how Erdoğan’s balancing act in Syria paid off
Less than a week after the deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow, Turkish officials raised their flag over the embassy in Damascus. While many of the shutters on the palatial villa remained closed, the red and white crescent flew over the embassy rooftop for the first time in 12 years. It was a…
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Victorious rebels promise new start for Syria
The toppling of Bashar al-Assad – eye surgeon, dictator, “butcher of Damascus”, Russian puppet – has reverberated across the Middle East and forced a flustered Russian foreign minister to admit: “Yes, we lost in Syria.” Last night Assad and his family were granted asylum in Moscow “on humanitarian grounds”. So what? A tyrant who made…
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Iran-backed Iraqi militias join fight in Syria after militants seize Aleppo
Iranian-backed Iraqi militias crossed into eastern Syria overnight in an attempt to shore up struggling forces loyal to Damascus, battling an insurgency that has swept much of the country’s north-west as Islamist militants seized control of Aleppo. An officer with the Syrian army told Reuters that the Iraqi militia forces crossing the border were “fresh…
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‘We felt completely lost’: fears over reprisals from Damascus and Islamist rule in Aleppo
It was 2am on Saturday when Nasma’s husband told her there were uniformed fighters in their neighbourhood of western Aleppo – but they were not from the Syrian army. He stood on their balcony to get a better view, before the men told him to go back indoors. News of the militias’ advance in the…
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Iran’s top diplomat to visit Damascus as Syria’s allies rally after fall of Aleppo
Iran’s top diplomat is expected to go to Damascus in a show of support to the Syrian regime as it attempts to repel the strongest challenge to its authority in years, after a sudden advance by Islamist insurgents in which it seized control of Aleppo. The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters he would…
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Syrian rebels enter Aleppo three days into surprise offensive
Islamist insurgents have entered Syria’s second city of Aleppo in a shock assault, eight years after forces loyal to Damascus seized control of the city. Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) began a major offensive earlier this week from their base in the Idlib countryside, a slim strip of land in Syria’s north-west. It took…