Free Syrian Army

The United States has a window to facilitate an orderly transition in Syria without deploying military force. But the window is narrowing — and the Obama administration will need to adjust its political strategy to succeed. Diplomatically, the administration has focused on engaging the U.N. Security Council and the Friends of Syria, a French-created group of 88 participating states, seven international organizations and one observer (the Vatican). But the Security Council remains in stalemate by Russian and Chinese vetoes, and the...

REYHANLI, Turkey — Anti-government protests flared for a third day on Monday in Turkish town devastated by two powerful car bombs near the Syrian border, and some Turks accused their leader of putting the nation's security at risk by backing the rebels fighting Syria's government. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will "not refrain" from responding to twin car bombings it has blamed on Syria, but that his government will be cautious and avoid being drawn into its neighbor's civil...

ANTAKYA, Turkey — A surge of rebel advances in Syria is being fueled at least in part by an influx of heavy weaponry in a renewed effort by outside powers to arm moderates in the Free Syrian Army, according to Arab and rebel officials. The new armaments, including anti-tank weapons and recoilless rifles, have been sent across the Jordanian border into the province of Daraa in recent weeks to counter the growing influence of Islamist extremist groups in the north of Syria by boosting more moderate...

Israel's reported airstrikes in Syria — and the threat of a retaliatory strike by the Syrian government — are likely to accelerate the decision-making of the Obama administration , which was already moving toward a sharp escalation of U.S. involvement in the two-year-old crisis. Senior officials said the deployment of U.S. troops to Syria remains unlikely, but they have indicated that a decision will come within weeks on options ranging from the supply of weapons to the Syrian rebels to the...

Growing chaos in the liberated areas of northern Syria is convincing some members of the Syrian opposition that the country will become a "failed state" unless an orderly political transition begins soon to replace President Bashar al-Assad . This stark analysis is contained in an intelligence report provided to the State Department last week by Syrian sources working with the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Describing the situation in the area from Aleppo to the Turkish border, where Assad's army has largely disappeared, the report...

BEIRUT — The 29-year-old Syrian rebel is full of enthusiasm as he prepares to return to the battle front after nursing his leg wound, his second this year, in a northern Lebanese city. A jovial young man with a long bushy beard, he discusses the war the rebels are now waging with one eye shifting to the television screen to keep track of the archery competition at the Olympics, though he says his favorite sport is rifle shooting. He is tracking the rebels' progress in the northern city of Aleppo...

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels on Tuesday threatened to carry out attacks against Hezbollah inside Lebanon, a dangerous escalation of the conflict that could destabilize Syria's politically volatile neighbor as well as the region. The heightened tensions on both sides of the border came as four mortar rounds hit one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's palaces in Damascus on Tuesday, according to opposition activists. The presidential media office issued a statement saying...

Israel's reported airstrikes in Syria — and the threat of a retaliatory strike by the Syrian government — are likely to accelerate the decision-making of the Obama administration , which was already moving toward a sharp escalation of U.S. involvement in the two-year-old crisis. Senior officials said the deployment of U.S. troops to Syria remains unlikely, but they have indicated that a decision will come within weeks on options ranging from the...

REYHANLI, Turkey — Anti-government protests flared for a third day on Monday in Turkish town devastated by two powerful car bombs near the Syrian border, and some Turks accused their leader of putting the nation's security at risk by backing the rebels fighting Syria's government. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will "not refrain" from responding to twin car bombings it has blamed on Syria, but that his government will be cautious and avoid being drawn into its...

ROME — The Obama administration will provide food and medicine to Syrian rebel fighters, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Thursday, announcing a cautious U.S. foray into front-line battlefield support that falls far short of the heavy weapons or high-tech gear the rebels seek. "The stakes are really high, and we can't risk letting this country — in the heart of the Middle East — be destroyed by vicious autocrats or hijacked by the extremists," Kerry said following...

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels and activists reacted with resigned bitterness Friday to assertions that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons, underscoring their low expectations of action by the United States and other Western countries after more than two years of conflict. Britain and France said Thursday they have credible evidence that Syria has employed nerve agents within its borders more than once since December. In letters to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon this week, the two...

BEIRUT — Mortar rounds crashed into the campus of the University of Damascus on Thursday, killing at least a dozen people and wounding several others, according to official Syrian media and opposition groups. State media blamed the attack on "terrorists," their label for the opposition, and rebels attributed it to the government. "Each time the Free Syrian Army attacks regime targets, the regime retaliates on residential areas to make it look like the Free Syrian Army...

The moderate political and military command structure the U.S. has been trying to foster within the Syrian opposition appears to be fracturing, a victim of bitter Arab regional rivalries. The regional tension splitting the Syrian rebel movement is between Qatar and Turkey, on one side, and Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Emirates on the other. The former group would like to see an Islamist government headed by the Muslim Brotherhood after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad.

BEIRUT — Syria's opposition coalition was on the verge of collapse Sunday after its president resigned and rebel fighters rejected its choice to head an interim government, leaving a U.S.-backed effort to forge a united front against President Bashar al-Assad in tatters. The resignation of Moaz al-Khatib, a moderate Sunni preacher who heads the Syrian Opposition Coalition, climaxed a bitter internal fight over a range of issues, from the appointment of an interim government to a proposal by Khatib to...

UNITED NATIONS — Twenty-one U.N. peacekeepers being held by Syrian rebels for three days were set free Saturday before safely crossing the border into Jordan, according to senior U.N. officials and rebel commanders The development marked the end of one of the most dramatic U.N. hostage crises in years, and it followed days of intense U.N. negotiations to secure the release of the Filipino blue helmets against a backdrop of intensive fighting...

BEIRUT — Several United Nations peacekeepers who were abducted by Syrian rebels said in videos posted online Thursday that they are safe and being treated well, even as activists reported clashes and shelling in the tense border area with Israel where the Filipino troops were being held. Opposition fighters detained 21 peacekeepers near the village of Jamlah in the Golan Heights on Wednesday — the first time U.N. troops have encountered trouble since they began patrolling an...

ALEPPO, Syria A red-faced fighter named Faisal arrives at the forward headquarters of the Free Syrian Army , pleading for weapons. He's just come from the front line in Sakhour, a neighborhood that has been under attack by the government's forces for three weeks. As he shouts at his superiors, you can hear the thunder of incoming artillery about a half-mile away. Faisal rages that his men are dying and that he needs rocket-propelled grenades to fight the tanks of President Bashar al-Assad's army.

After months of bloodshed , some in Washington continue to suggest that Syria's fight has little to do with the United States. They're wrong. Principle aside, we have interests in ensuring the stability of a pivotal country in the Middle East — and not simply because Bashar al-Assad's regime has nuclear- and chemical-weapons programs. The question is: How does the United States make a difference, in spite of the international community's paralysis and the Obama administration's reluctance to support the Syrian opposition?

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Syrian rebels abducted about 20 U.N. observers from the Golan Heights on Wednesday and threatened to hold them until the Syrian government withdraws its troops from the area, marking the most serious escalation of the conflict yet along Syria's southern border with Israel. In New York, the U.N. Security Council swiftly issued a statement blaming "armed elements" of the Syrian opposition for the abduction and demanding the "unconditional and immediate release" of all the observers.

ROME — The Obama administration will provide food and medicine to Syrian rebel fighters, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Thursday, announcing a cautious U.S. foray into front-line battlefield support that falls far short of the heavy weapons or high-tech gear the rebels seek. "The stakes are really high, and we can't risk letting this country — in the heart of the Middle East — be destroyed by vicious autocrats or hijacked by the extremists," Kerry said...