Man who has ruled country since 2000 expected to win contentious poll and land third seven-year term The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, has declared his candidacy for the presidential elections on 3 June, the speaker of the country's parliament has announced. Jihad Laham made the announcement on state-run television on Monday. Assad who has ruled the country since taking over from his father in...
Airstrike that killed at least eight the first cross-border raid since Syria's civil war began comes days before Iraqi elections Iraqi army helicopters have hit what they believe was a jihadist convoy in eastern Syria, killing at least eight people, in a show of strength days before the country's first national elections since 2010. It was the first airstrike inside Syria claimed by Iraq since the...
Palestinian families who have managed to escape the Syrian camp are now arriving in Lebanon with terrible stories of their suffering Lugging a plastic bag carrying the clothes and food scraps she could salvage, Umm Samir set out from her ruined home and crawled through the pre-dawn gloom on her second journey into exile in 68 years. In the difficult days since, she has made her way from the Yarmouk...
Ayman al-Zawahiri urges unity in audio interview Expresses solidarity with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood The al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has called on Muslims to kidnap westerners, particularly Americans, who could then be exchanged for jailed jihadists including a blind Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of conspiring to attack the United Nations and other New York landmarks. In a wide-ranging audio...
We can't ask Muslim mothers to stop the killing in Syria. That's the job of the international community and it is failing British counter-terrorism chiefs are really bringing out the big guns with their latest campaign to tackle the growing number of Muslims heading out to Syria. They've come up with Operation Mum, asking Muslim women to inform on family members thinking of going to Syria to fight...
Speaking on his regular phone-in radio show on LBC, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg backs the Metropolitan police initiative to stop young British men from joining the Syria conflict. The Lib Dem leader warns that the return of radicalised fighters from Syria presents a serious security threat to the UK Continue reading... ...
Top counter-terror officer says any Briton fighting, or training to fight, in Syria should expect to be investigated on return to UK Muslim women should watch out for increased internet use or anger about Syria among their loved ones and report it to the authorities, the UK's top counter-terrorism officer has said. Continue reading... ...
Police asking people to snoop on relatives criticised as unworkable and unrealistic, as 'police are not the Samaritans' A government campaign to urge Muslim women in Britain to tell the police if they suspect their sons are planning to travel to Syria to fight or help the war effort has been widely criticised for targeting the wrong people. Continue reading... ...
Deputy assistant commissioner Helen Ball, senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing for the Metropolitan police, tells Vikram Dodd that women should report on family members who may be determined to travel to Syria to fight in the country's civil war. She says anyone who comes forward with information will be treated in confidence and their details will not be passed to the security...
Inspectors and western officials say there is evidence chlorine has been used and stockpiled by Damascus regime Syria is to hand over all its declared stockpile of chemical weapons and chemical warfare materials in the next few days but has failed to declare everything it has, British officials said on Thursday. The officials said that there is strong evidence that Syria is using chlorine as a weapon...
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Ban Ki-moon says blocking of food, water and medical supplies for civilians is flagrant violation of international law The United Nations secretary general has called on the security council to take urgent action to ensure 3.5 million people cut off by fighting in Syria have access to food, water and medical help. Ban Ki-moon said the blocking of humanitarian supplies represented "flagrant violations...
The journey of the Deghayes brothers from seaside upbringing to Syrian battlefield is one the authorities were hoping to prevent Sitting in the large living room of his house in Brighton, Abubaker Deghayes recalls the last time he saw his 18-year-old son, Abdullah. Continue reading... ...
Abubaker Deghayes, 45, the father of Brighton teenager Abdullah Deghayes, 18, who was killed in Syria while fighting against the Assad regime, reflects on the decision by his son that ultimately led to his death. The details of what exactly happened to Abdullah are unclear, but it appears he was involved in fighting in Kassab in Latakia province. Abdullah's brother Amer, also in Syria was shot in the...
Tony Blair's anti-democratic tirade chimes with David Cameron's toxic manoeuvring at home and in the Muslim world The neocons are back. That toxic blend of messianic warmongering abroad and McCarthyite witch-hunting at home which gave us Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo and the London bombings is coursing through our public life again. Yesterday the liberal interventionists' hero, Tony Blair, was...
Parents get guidance to spot children's intentions, after 10 young people leave for Syria in the past six months One city facing up to the lure exerted by the conflict in Syria on its young people is Portsmouth. At least eight men and two teenage girls have travelled from the naval port to Turkey and on into Syria in the last six months. Police and the security service are keen to point out that Portsmouth...
Counter-terrorism officers make plea to Muslim women as more young men head off to fight in civil war Police battling to prevent young Muslims heading to Syria to fight in the country's bitter civil war will gamble that they can persuade women in the community to inform on family members determined to head to the war zone. Counter-terrorism officers, fearful that some of those fighting in Syria will...
In keynote speech on Middle East, former PM blames Islamic extremism for failures of western intervention in region Western military intervention in the Middle East has so far failed due to the distorting impact of an Islamic extremism so opposed to modernity that it could yet engender global catastrophe, Tony Blair warned on Wednesday in a keynote speech on the state of politics in the Middle East....
His reflections are as thoughtful, and thought provoking, as of old. But there is a new strain: wisdom Slowly and carefully, Tony Blair is re-entering the foreign policy debate in Britain. Or, more correctly, he is trying to get a mature debate going. His speech today at Bloomberg "Why the Middle East matters" was reflective, not didactic, and signalled a nuanced approach to the complex set...
Rolling coverage of the day's political developments as they happen, including Tony Blair's speech on the need for the world to fight Islamist extremism, and reaction to it 10.37am BST Say what you like about Tony Blair - and a quick glance at Twitter this morning shows that people do - but you can't fault him of lack of ambition. When he was prime minister he seemed at act at times as if he were...