Turkey Foils Kidnapping Of Syria’s FSA Chief

Turkish authorities foiled a plan to kidnap the rebel Free Syrian Army’s founder and chief from a refugee camp, Milliyet reported.

Two Turks were collaborating with a Syrian spy to abduct Riad al-Asaad, a former colonel in President Bashar al-Assad’s army who fled to Turkey and started an opposition force, (more…)

Syria’s neighbors funding, arming rebels, report

Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by the Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials. (more…)

U.S. giving $40 million for Syrian refugees

A U.S. State Department official responsible for refugees says Washington has allocated $40 million to assist relief organizations aiding victims of the Syrian crisis.

Anne Richard, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, says the money will be funneled through international and local agencies inside Syria and in surrounding countries, (more…)

Turkey refuses to extradite Iraqi VP Hashemi

Turkey will not extradite Iraq’s Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who is being tried in absentia in Baghdad accused of running a death squad, a senior official was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

“We will not extradite someone whom we have supported since the (more…)

Syrian refugees fear they’ll never see home again

Abdul Rahman can’t sleep. Forced to flee after Syrian troops burned down his home, he lives in a safe house in Turkey with Syrian army defectors in their 20s. (more…)

Iran may reciprocate over Canada visa section closure

Iran said on Tuesday it may take “reciprocal action” over a decision by Canada to shut the visa section in its Tehran embassy used by thousands of Iranians.

“They have said that the decision was based on cost-cutting (more…)

Assad forces shelling Syrian Refugee camp in Turkey

Al Arabiya quoted Syrian activists as saying “the forces loyal to president Bashar
al Assad have been shelling a Syrian Refugee camps in Turkey.”

This development took place as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon condemned (more…)

Kurds too joined the fighting against Assad regime, report

Amid the escalation of violence in Syria as a cease-fire orchestrated by UN and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan seems not to be observed, several Kurdish groups in the north of the country have begun to take up arms to defend themselves against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which acts as the extension of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. (more…)

Obama won’t call Armenian killings ‘genocide’

President Barack Obama is marking the anniversary of the massacre of Armenians in Turkey nearly a century ago by calling it a “one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.” But as in previous years, he is stopping short of calling the killings genocide. (more…)

Opinion: Needed Plan B for Syria

The U.S. and its NATO allies ought to know from the Arab League’s disastrous monitoring mission in Syria last year that observers will not stop the regime’s violence.