Tag: syria

• Global News Podcast: The Global Story: Syria’s illegal drug empire

  February 9, 2025

  Listen: https://ift.tt/TXJ6uNf Ousted President Bashar al-Assad has been linked to Syria’s multi-billion dollar Captagon trade. Rebel leaders vow to end it—but what will it take to break the country's link… more ›

• Forecasting Syria in 2025

  January 3, 2025

  This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages. Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to… more ›

• What will happen to al-Assad’s Captagon empire now?

  December 18, 2024

  Following its ousting of the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria last week, the opposition alliance led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) invited international reporters to witness vast stockpiles and… more ›

• Decoding the Wagner Group: Analyzing the Role of Private Military Security Contractors in Russian Proxy Warfare

  August 13, 2022

  Russian private military security contractors (PMSCs) are pivotal players in ongoing proxy wars in the Greater Middle East and its periphery. Their covert operations—real and imagined—are also critical in shaping… more ›

• ‘A dirty business’: how one drug is turning Syria into a narco-state

  May 7, 2021

  In the summer of 2015 a businessman in the Syrian province of Latakia was approached by a powerful security chief, seeking a favour. The official wanted the merchant, an importer… more ›

• The Shadow Commander

  January 7, 2020

  Last February, some of Iran’s most influential leaders gathered at the Amir al-Momenin Mosque, in northeast Tehran, inside a gated community reserved for officers of the Revolutionary Guard. They had… more ›

• Ghost soldiers: the Russians secretly dying for the Kremlin in Syria

  April 1, 2019

  TOGLIATTI, Russia (Reuters) – The start of this year proved deadly for one unit of about 100 Russian fighters supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s troops in northern Syria. On Feb. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-insight/ghost-soldiers-the-russians-secretly-dying-for-the-kremlin-in-syria-idUSKBN12Y0M6 more ›

• Anatomy of a ‘caliphate’: The rise and fall of ISIL

  March 23, 2019

  Samer recalls the gruesome shock of seeing his friend’s headless corpse strung up above Raqqa’s main square. It’s this memory, from a hot summer day in 2015, that defines his… more ›

• U.S. Strikes Killed Scores of Russia Fighters in…

  February 13, 2018

  U.S. Strikes Killed Scores of Russia Fighters in Syria, Sources Say » U.S. forces killed scores of Russian mercenaries in Syria last week in what may be the deadliest clash… more ›

• The kill chain: inside the unit that tracks…

  January 23, 2018

  The kill chain: inside the unit that tracks targets for US drone wars » Amid Kansas bean fields military analysts watch live video of far-off suspects’ lives … and mark… more ›