17 October 2019
Scores killed; hundreds of thousands displaced; a politician summarily executed; and US forces replaced by Assad's: Al-Jumhuriya assesses the first week of Turkey's "Operation Peace Spring" in northern Syria.
Al-Jumhuriya
After 24 hours of confusion and contradiction, it now appears any hypothetical Turkish operation in northeast Syria will be much more limited than first thought.
Over 40,000 displaced Syrians have contracted tropical diseases in just two months, as a result of sleeping in open fields with no clean water or sanitation; just one aspect of the staggering humanitarian crisis attending the largest wave of displacement since Rwanda in the 1990s.
Al-Jumhuriya details the short but unique life of Abd al-Basit Sarout, the Syrian goalkeeper, protest leader, and militant killed fighting the Assad regime this month, and examines the meaning of the “narrative war” that erupted following his death.
What the Assad regime’s inability to break past a small town in the countryside south of Idlib says about Syria as a whole.
The Israeli strikes that led to the Syrian regime downing a Russian plane Monday night were only the latest in over 200 carried out since 2017; a relentless campaign that has nonetheless done nothing to imperil Assad’s grip on the country.
By releasing the names of thousands of detainees perished in its custody, the Assad regime may believe it can turn the page on the issue of the "disappeared" once and for all. International law, however, demands accountability, a legal expert on impunity tells Al-Jumhuriya in a wide-ranging interview.
Despite the enormous professional and personal price she paid for it—including arrest by Assad’s infamous security agencies—the celebrated 49-year-old actress never wavered in her support for Syria’s revolutionaries.
Two days after rebels reached a deal with Russia to end fighting in southern Syria, Moscow and the Assad regime are already back on the offensive. Meanwhile, Daraa’s tens of thousands of displaced civilians scramble west toward Quneitra, where the bloodshed may soon follow them.
Russia, Iran, and Turkey have now clearly delineated their zones of control in northern Syria, and are looking next to re-open the international highway extending from Turkey to Jordan.