Middle Orient

Since the Islamic State fell, tens of thousands of people—many of them children—have been herded into Al-Hol, a giant fenced-in camp in Syria, and effectively given life sentences. The dead turned up everywhere. Two decapitated corpses in a cesspit. The remains of a woman with a pierced skull. A child …

The Syrian Civil War was the longest and most complex geo-political conflict to emerge out of the Arab Spring, thus creating a complicated legacy for leftist analysts to interrogate. In this interview, exclusive for Counterpunch, former United Nations special rapporteur, and international relations scholar Richard Falk, breaks down Palestine and …

Israel is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to global terrorism. In the 1990s, after the Oslo Accords, when Palestinians resorted to suicide bombings, the world largely ignored them, blamed Israel, and failed to see these attacks as an ominous portent. Just a few years later, the …

Latest Developments A group of veteran American and Israeli intelligence professionals assert in a new report that Qatar should not mediate between Hamas and Israel, The Times of Israel revealed on April 8. The report, which draws on English, Arabic, and French sources, concludes that Qatar is “not an independent …

ISIS carried out at least 69 confirmed attacks in March in the Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Raqqa, and Deir Ez Zor governorates. These attacks killed at least 84 pro-Assad regime soldiers and 44 civilians and wounded at least 51 more soldiers and civilians. There were also 19 high quality* attacks during …

The United States is on high alert and preparing for a possible attack by Iran targeting Israeli or American assets in the region in response to Israel’s strike on the Iranian embassy in Syria, a U.S. official said on Friday. “We’re definitely at a high state of vigilance,” the official …

A notorious Iraqi extremist leader was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria’s rebel-held north-west, it was revealed on Friday. Abu Maria Al Qahtani was killed in an attack by an ISIS fighter using an explosive belt, said former Al Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, which rules Syria’s last …

At least 20 people were killed in clashes Sunday in Syria’s Daraa governate a day after an explosion killed a group of children, a rights monitor said. Daraa was the cradle of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad but it returned to government control in 2018 under a cease-fire …

Slowly but surely, the Islamic State terror group seems to be regaining its footing in Syria, launching new and brazen attacks against forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Just-released data from U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces across the Middle East and South Asia, puts the number of …

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) released a report today detailing ISIS activity in central Syria in 2023 showing that ISIS attacks, high quality attacks, and civilian and military casualties rose dramatically last year—and were often more aggressive than in recent years. The 215 ISIS attacks chronicled by CEP often utilized …