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☆ U.S. indicts 2 former Syrian officials, accuses them of torturing prisoners
▼ + stars: | 2024-12-10 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Patrick-Smith-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Patrick Smith | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The Justice Department's indictment accuses them of "cruel and unusual treatment" of civilian prisoners at the Mezzeh Military Airport near Damascus. Emin Sansar / Anadolu via Getty ImagesThe U.S. is the latest country to issue a warrant against Mahmoud and Hassan, following Germany in 2018. The U.S. has placed sanctions on Assad and his inner circle — including Hassan — since 2012. The indictment lists in detail the torture allegedly meted out at the direction of Hassan and Mahmoud. "Hassan and Mahmoud allegedly oversaw the systematic use of torture and cruelty on perceived enemies of the Syrian regime, including American citizens," said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Persons: Bashar al, Assad's, Jamil Hassan, Abdul Salam Mahmoud, Department's, Assad, Prosecutors, Emin Sansar, Mahmoud, Hassan, Hassan —, Merrick B, Garland, Christopher Wray Organizations: Syrian Air Force, Mezzeh, United States, Court, Sunday, Baath Party, Getty, Syrian Air Force Intelligence Locations: United States, Damascus, Chicago, Anadolu, Germany, U.S, Mezzeh, Syria's

He did so as the rebels entered and seized Damascus, seemingly with little fightback from Assad’s government forces. Syria dominated international consciousness for almost a decade, its civil war erupting after Assad crushed peaceful protests during the region-wide 2011 Arab Spring. But until last month the conflict had been largely at a stalemate, after Assad’s forces regained control of much of the country. The conflict in Syria partly contributed to a wave of mass migration into Europe, met by a right-wing backlash across the continent that is still reverberating today. Much of this diaspora has also responded to Assad’s downfall with astonished glee, some rushing to return home.

Persons: Dimitry Peskov, Assad, Murat Sengul, gulags, Hayat Tahrir, Abu Mohammad al Organizations: Baath Party, Getty, UNHCR, Amnesty, Al, State Department Locations: Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Israel, Moscow, Syria, U.S, Turkey, Iraq, Anadolu, Europe, London, Berlin, Germany, Al Qaeda

☆ Abu Mohammad al-Jolani: Who is the leader of Syria’s rebels and what does he want?
▼ + stars: | 2024-12-09 | by ( Peter Bergen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

As a Syrian “foreign fighter” in his early 20s, Jolani crossed into Iraq to fight the Americans when they invaded the country in the spring of 2003. For its part, the Biden administration is taking no chances over whether Jolani has the capability to manage the threat from ISIS. What to do about those US forces in Syria is a decision that Trump will likely face as he assumes office. Jolani was fighting against the Americans in Iraq then, so he is presumably aware of this instructive history. In Libya in 2011, a US-led NATO bombing campaign contributed to the fall of another brutal secular dictator, Moammar Gadhafi.

Persons: Abu Mohammad al, Bashar al, Assad, Jolani, Camp Bucca, Baathist Assad, Abu Bakr al, al, Tahrir, Aaron Zalin, CNN’s Jomana, “, ” Jolani, ”, Austin Tice, Joe Biden, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, won’t, Biden, Donald Trump, Trump, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Moammar Gadhafi Organizations: CNN, US State Department, ISIS, US Center for Naval, Central Command, Baath, NATO, United Arab Locations: Syria, Syrian, Iraq, al Qaeda, Idlib, American, Afghanistan, Libya, US, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Russia, Turkey

☆ What happened in Syria’s civil war, who took over and what’s next after decades of brutal rule?
▼ + stars: | 2024-12-09 | by ( Helen Regan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

They’re led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the head of militant group HTS, a former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria that used to go by the name Al-Nusra Front. The leader of Syria's Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group Abu Mohammed al-Jolani at the capital's landmark Umayyad Mosque on December 8, 2024. Assad is the second generation of an autocratic family dynasty that held power in Syria for more than five decades. Analysts told CNN the Syrian rebels used a vacuum left by the group to advance in Syria. Syrian rebel fighters and locals celebrate in the central city of Homs early on December 8, 2024, after entering Syria's third city overnight.

Persons: CNN — Long, Assad, Damacus “, Bashar al, ”, Louai Beshara, ” It’s, They’re, Abu Mohammad al, al, Jolani, ” Jolani, Tahrir, Abu Mohammed al, Aref Tammawi, Hafez al, Sam Hariri, what’s, Joe Biden, Abdulaziz Ketaz, Syria Hossein Akbari Organizations: CNN, ISIS, Getty, Operations Command, Nusra, Syrian National Army, Syrian Democratic Forces, United Nations, Baath Party, UN, Amnesty, Saydnaya, Syria's, Ministry, AFP, Rebels, Hezbollah, Analysts Locations: Syria, ”, Russia, Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Homs, Damascus, Moscow, AFP, Iran, Qaeda, al Qaeda, Turkey, Kurdish, United States, Umayyad, London, Ukraine, Israel, Assad Syria, Syrian, Syria's

☆ Bashar al-Assad: The brutal leader whose family ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than 50 years
▼ + stars: | 2024-12-08 | by ( Simone Mccarthy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The United States, Jordan, Turkey and the European Union at the war’s start all called for Assad to step down. Testament to the horror of that regime were scenes of jubilant celebration as rebel forces took control of Syrian cities. Bashar al-Assad, center, is seen during the closing session of the ruling Baath party congress in Damascus, Syria, on June 20, 2000. Bashar al-Assad was then thrust into the national spotlight and studied military science, later becoming a colonel in the Syrian army. They then turned to outright condemnation of the regime after he met the 2011 pro-democracy groundswell with brutal force.

Persons: Bashar al, Assad, Assad’s, SANA, Hafez al, Bassel, Hafez, Asma al, Barack Obama, ” Assad, ”, Syria's, Mohammed al, Ban, Washington, Syria wouldn’t Organizations: CNN, ISIS, European Union, Baath Party, Muslim, Hezbollah, Getty, UN, United Nations Locations: Syria, United States, Jordan, Turkey, Russia, Iran, Homs, Damascus, Soviet, Hama –, London, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Assad, Hama, AFP, States, Western, US

☆ Rare protests flare in regime-held Syria as Assad seeks international rehabilitation
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The protests, which are taking place in areas governed by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, have so far shown no signs of abating. The Druze are Syria’s third largest religious minority making up 3% to 4% of the country’s population, according to Minority Rights Group International. While the largest protests are clustered around al-Sir Square in Suwayda city, other, smaller ones are scattered across the governorate, Marouf said. “If protests spread deeper into regime territories, those chances (of violent crackdown) will surge.”All eyes are on Assad’s next moves. If Assad attends, it would be his first appearance on the world stage since the start of the civil war in 2011.

Persons: Bashar al, disgruntlement, Assad, haven’t, ”, Charles Lister, ” Lister, “ Long, ” Rayan Marouf, Marouf, “, ” Marouf, Hafez, Syria’s, Geir Pedersen, Pedersen Organizations: CNN, Group, Middle East Institute, UN, Arab League, Sir, UN Security Council, Sky News, ISIS, Security, United, United Arab Emirates Locations: Syria’s, Syria, Washington , DC, Russia, Iran, Suwayda governorate, Suwayda, Jaramana, Damascus, “, Idlib, Aleppo, United Arab, Dubai

☆ Syria's Assad's ruling party shut by protests in rebellious Druze city
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-27 | by ( Suleiman Al-Khalidi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Youths with welding machines sealed the gates of the building of the party led by President Bashar al Assad, which has been in power since a 1963 coup. A major economic crisis has seen the local currency collapse, leading to soaring prices for food and basic supplies and which Assad's government blames on Western sanctions. Across the province, scores of local branches of the Baath party whose officials hold top government posts were also closed by protesters with its cadres fleeing, residents said. In a rare act of defiance in areas under Assad's rule, protesters tore down posters of Assad, where the party has promoted a personality cult around him and his late father. Sweida, a city of over 100,000 people, has seen most public institutions shut and public transport on strike and businesses partially open, residents and civic activists said.

Persons: Bashar al Assad, Bashar, Assad, Kenan Waqaf, Sweida, Ryan Marouf, Suleiman Al, Khalidi, Grant McCool Organizations: Baath, Protesters, Thomson Locations: AMMAN, Sweida, Russia, Iran

U.N. investigators in 2012 concluded there were reasonable grounds to believe shabbiha militias committed crimes against humanity, including murder and torture, and war crimes such as arbitrary arrest and detention, sexual violence and pillaging. PAPER TRAILSome human rights scholars who have studied the role of the shabbiha in the Syrian war say the Assad regime initially used the groups to distance itself from violence on the ground. CIJA is a nonprofit founded by a veteran war crimes investigator and staffed by international criminal lawyers who have worked in Bosnia, Rwanda and Cambodia. While there is no international war crimes court with jurisdiction over Syria's conflict, there are a number of so-called universal jurisdiction cases in countries like the Netherlands, Sweden, France and Germany which have laws allowing them to prosecute war crimes even if they are committed elsewhere. Ghany said the documents were "necessary" pieces of evidence linking the shabbiha to the state in international justice cases.

Persons: shabbiha, Assad, CIJA, Bashar al, Ugur Ungor, Fadel Abdul Ghany, Nerma Jelacic, Ghany, Stephanie Van Den Berg, Maya Gebeily, Frank Jack Daniel Our Organizations: UN, Reuters, Commission, International Justice, Committees, Assad's Baath, Popular Committees, Crisis Management, Dutch NIOD Institute for, Studies, Syrian Network for Human Rights, National Defence Force, Thomson Locations: HAGUE, BEIRUT, U.S, CIJA, Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Syria, Germany, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Karm, Homs, al, Adawiya

☆ Iraqis recount their struggles after Saddam Hussein's fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Amina Ismail | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

But he says ridding the nation of Saddam has just created anarchy for others to bleed the country dry. Under Saddam's rule minorities were tolerated and not singled out for their religious beliefs, but were oppressed if they opposed the government. After the fall of Saddam, they were targeted by Islamists for their religious beliefs and labelled apostates or devil worshippers. A CHRISTIAN: PASCALE WARDAWhen U.S.-led forces invaded, Iraqi Christian Pascale Warda was in London lobbying European leaders to depose Saddam. It was the same under Saddam," said Warda, who had several members of her family executed by the state.

☆ Two decades after Saddam's fall, Iraqis still haunted by disappearances
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Charlotte Bruneau | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

As exhumations dragged on, more atrocities were committed in sectarian conflict and amid the rise and fall of armed groups, such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State militants, as well as Shi'ite Muslim militias. Tens of thousands of Iraqis were killed by Saddam's forces during his rule. According to Siddiq, massacres committed by Islamic State militants, who seized much of northern Iraq in 2014 and held it for three violent years, have been prioritised. In Sinjar, where Islamic State committed what U.N. investigators described as genocide against Iraq's Yazidi minority, about 600 victims have been reburied, with some 150 identified. His name was not among the hundreds of victims identified by Siddiq's team, and Mohammed remains in limbo.

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