Israel is using the same tactics in Gaza that al-Assad employed in Syria

As the humanitarian pause took effect in Gaza, footage of the massive destruction in the northern part of the enclave has started to trickle in.

Seeing these images of devastation, one cannot but think of Thomas Friedman’s reference to what he calls the “Hama rules”  in an article he published with The New York Times on October 14.

A neologism he coined many years ago, it refers to then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad’s violent razing of the city of Hama in 1982 that killed more than 20,000 Syrians. Friedman argues that brute force commands legitimacy in the Middle East. This idea is deeply problematic, but the scale of destruction in Gaza suggests that the Israeli government and the military have embraced it.

Assad the outcast being sold to the west as key to peace in Middle East

For almost a decade he was a pariah who struggled to get a meeting abroad or even to assert himself on his visitors. Largely alone in his palace, save for trusted aides, Bashar al-Assad presided over a broken state whose few friends demanded a humiliating price for their protection, and weren’t afraid to show it.

During regular trips to Syria, Vladimir Putin arranged meetings at Russian bases, forcing Assad to trail behind him at functions. Iran too readily imposed its will, often dictating military terms, or sidelining the Syrian leader on decisions that shaped the course of his country.

Syrians vote in election set to extend al-Assad’s grip on power

Voters in government-held parts of Syria are heading to the polls to cast ballots in an election that is set to cement a fourth term for Bashar al-Assad – but is dismissed by the opposition and Western powers as a farce.

Wednesday’s presidential vote is the second since the beginning of Syria’s uprising-turned-war a decade ago, a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to leave the country. In 2014, al-Assad won nearly 89 percent of the vote.

The World Abetted Assad’s Victory in Syria

After more than seven years of a civil war that has left half of Syria’s population displaced, cities reduced to rubble, and over 500,000 killed, President Bashar al-Assad appears to be on the brink of victory. In July, units loyal to Assad recaptured Deraa, where the peaceful protests that turned into a violent rebellion against him first began in 2011. The recapture came as Assad conquered the south, one of the last rebel holdouts.

The war is far from over, with the Kurdish east and rebel-held Idlib still out of regime hands, and any victory may prove pyrrhic given the devastation wrought. Even so, it now seems Assad is going nowhere. The Syrian dictator has outlasted Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, and David Cameron—Western leaders who once expected his fall “within months.”

Bashar al-Assad to visit North Korea, state media claims

Bashar al-Assad is to visit North Korea, Pyongyang state media has claimed, in what would be a first state visit to the isolated nation under the leadership of Kim Jong-un.

The report by the official Korean Central News Agency did not say when the visit would be, but the two sanctions-hit nations have been allies for decades and Washington has accused the North of assisting Syria with its weapons programmes.

Assad crackdown on Idlib could trigger a refugee ‘catastrophe’

The assault by Bashar al-Assad’s regime on the last Syrian province under rebel control could spark a “new wave of migration”, a top Turkish official has warned, amid growing alarm over a campaign that has displaced more than 100,000 people.

The fighting in Idlib, which has intensified in recent days amid rebel counterattacks, has raised fears of a humanitarian catastrophe in an area already crowded with refugees. “This displacement is the biggest perhaps in the Syrian revolution since its beginning until today,” said Mounir Mustafa, the deputy chief of the civil defence rescue workers organisation known as the White Helmets.

Vladimir Putin makes triumphant visit to Syria airbase

Vladimir Putin has declared mission accomplished for Russian forces in the fight against Islamic State in Syria, as he made a surprise visit to the Russian airbase in the country.

“Friends, the motherland is waiting for you,” Putin told the Russian air force detachment based at the Khmeimim airbase during his visit on Monday morning. “You are coming back home with victory.”

Assad Agreed to Local Cease-Fires in Syria — But War Crimes Worsen in Eastern Ghouta

Abu Fahed, a Syrian rebel and resident of the district of Eastern Ghouta, was on his way home from work a few weeks ago when he lost five members of his family. He had been building hillforts in Jobar, part of the effort to keep Eastern Ghouta, a hotly contested area on the outskirts of Damascus, in rebel hands. He stopped in at his sister’s home on his way back to the town of Kafr Batna, where he lives.

Assad to Putin: Thank you for 'saving our country'

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad thanked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for "saving" his country and for Russia's support in Syria.

The two heads of state met for talks in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on Monday, the Kremlin said in a statement on Tuesday.

They discussed the fight against "terrorism" and the possibilities for a political settlement in Syria, which has entered its seventh year of war. The statement added that Assad had expressed his readiness to hold discussions with parties interested in resolving the conflict.

The Horrifying Death Of A Syrian Infant Underscores The Brutality Of Assad’s Siege Warfare

Sahar Dofdaa lived a tragically short and painful life. With sunken eyes and frail, protruding bones, the famished infant hardly stood a chance. Trapped in a Syrian conflict zone, her mother was too malnourished to breastfeed, and her father too impoverished to afford milk supplements.

Freelance journalist Amer Almohibany photographed Sahar for the last time at a medical facility in the war-torn country on Saturday. She died hours later, barely a month old and weighing just 4 pounds.

Why Is Syria Hell on Earth? Here’s the Ugly but True Answer…

The son of the president was driving way too fast through the early morning fog. He was rushing to the airport to catch a flight to Germany. He missed the exit to the airport. Lost control of his sports car. Smashed it into a barrier. The car flipped numerous times. When it came to a stop, the son of the president was dead. He was 33. His name was Basil al-Assad.

The first son was so beloved by his father that the president was fond of being called Abu Basil, which translates as “Father of Basil.” As heir apparent to his father, Basil’s sudden violent death was a shock to the family, and a stunning blow to the future of the nation and its people. The second son was never intended to be a leader. He was off in London, training to be an eye doctor. But following the death of Abu Basil’s first son, Fate left the younger brother as de facto next-in-line to become president of Syria. You know this man’s name: Bashar al-Assad.

Assad forces carried out sarin attack, says French intelligence

French intelligence has identified the chemical “signature” of the Syrian government at the site of a nerve agent attack this month, indicating that the sarin used in the bombing came from Bashar al-Assad’s stockpiles.

Samples from the scene of the attack in the town of Khan Sheikhun, contained chemical compounds that were a hallmark of Assad’s sarin manufacturing process and matched samples collected from the site of a prior attack by government forces, a declassified intelligence report says.

The chemical brothers: Putin and Assad

This week the world witnessed yet another chemical attack in Syria. After horrendous footage from Khan Sheikhoun showed children suffocating from sarin gas and relatives crying over piles of dead bodies, Russia was forced to react. But while Washington used the attack as an excuse for missile strikes on a regime-held airbase in southern Syria, Moscow did the exact opposite - it used it as an excuse for more excuses. And the excuse was produced quickly: The ministry of defence announced that there was no chemical attack but that a rocket had hit a stockpile of "terrorists'" chemical weapons, which led to the release of the poisonous gas.

Russia has been Assad’s greatest ally — as it was to his father before him

Before the White House ordered airstrikes in Syria, Russia had been the most dominant outside military force, participating in a bloody military escapade aimed at propping up Syrian President Bashar Assad and his government.

Since the fall of 2015, Russia has launched airstrikes on opposition strongholds, deployed special forces units on the ground, and supplied Syrian government troops with food and medical aid. And this intervention has been critical to ensuring Assad's political survival.

Syrian Chemical Attack Is Assad’s Message To The World, Activists Say

The gruesome chemical weapons attack that left scores dead in Syria this week was not only a gross violation of international law ― it was also a bold display of defiance to world leaders, activists and humanitarian workers say.

Warplanes dropped toxic gas over the residential area of Khan Sheikhoun in opposition-held Idlib early Tuesday morning, killing up to 100 people, including young children, while leaving hundreds more to suffer from respiratory injuries.

'Toxic gas attack' in Syria kills at least 58 people

At least 58 people, including 11 children, have been killed in a "toxic gas" bombing raid on a rebel-held Syrian town, doctors and a monitor said, in an attack the United Nations quickly said it would investigate as a possible war crime.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province caused many people to choke or faint, and some to foam from the mouth, citing medical sources who described the symptoms as possible signs that gas was used.

The Edlib Media Centre, a pro-opposition group, posted images that were widely shared on social media, showing people being treated by medics and what appeared to be dead bodies, many of them children.

Bashar al-Assad just gassed his own people, then bombed the clinic treating victims

A suspected poison gas attack by the Syrian regime on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun has killed at least 74 people — including 16 women and 23 children — and wounded over 350, according to the Syrian American Medical Society. Videos and photos taken by activists and medics on the scene showed victims choking and fainting, some with foam coming out of their mouths. These videos and photos have not been independently verified.

Spanish court to investigate Syrian 'state terrorism' by Assad regime

A Spanish court is to investigate allegations that nine members of the Syrian regime committed “state terrorism” by kidnapping, torturing and murdering a truck driver who disappeared in Damascus four years ago.

The landmark case – the first criminal complaint accepted against President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces by a European court – has been brought on behalf of the victim’s sister, a Spanish citizen who lives in Madrid.

“All you see is blood”: life at a death camp where Assad has slaughtered thousands

Beatings. Starvation. Rape. And then death, administered quickly and with sickening efficiency.

Those are the hallmarks of Saydnaya Prison, a facility just outside of Damascus that the Assad regime has turned into a death camp. Many of the inmates are civilian dissidents, and they are mostly killed not long after their arrival. As detailed in Amnesty International’s newest report from Syria, “Human Slaughterhouse: Mass Hangings and Extermination at Saydnaya Prison,” between 5,000 and 13,000 people have been executed there since the civil war began in 2011.

Whitewashing Assad and his allies must be challenged

In the past few months, three Western women have gone to Syria, two of them by invitation and the third on a regime-approved reporting trip. The first two are now on "speaking tours" to explain "what's really happening in Syria" to the Western public. The third one, however, was kicked out of Syria by the Bashar al-Assad regime. Her crime? "Untrue reporting" in the form of sharing tweets containing photos and witness accounts from people in besieged Eastern Aleppo, because the regime wouldn't give her or the other journalists with her access to that part of the city.