Rebels

Anthony Marra's first novel, "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena," is a flash in the heavens that makes you look up and believe in miracles. Go ahead and sneer at the thin atmosphere of America's MFA programs, but this Washington-born graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop is a testament to the vibrancy of contemporary fiction. Here, in fresh, graceful prose, is a profound story that dares to be as tender as it is ghastly, a story about desperate lives in a remote land that will quickly...

BOGOTA, Colombia — At least 10 Colombian soldiers were killed and six wounded Wednesday in a pre-dawn attack on an army patrol with homemade explosives by the country's second-largest leftist rebel band, the military said. The 2 a.m. attack by the National Liberation Army, or ELN, occurred in a rural area of Chitaga in the northeastern state of Norte de Santander, said the regional divisional commander, Gen. Juan Pablo Amaya. He said two of the wounded were in critical condition and...

T he Obama administration worked Monday to preserve thinning hopes for a political deal that could end the Syrian civil war and to hold off rising pressure from lawmakers and Syria's Arab neighbors for more direct U.S. involvement. An assassination bid against Syria's prime minister in the capital, Damascus, suggested that rebels are increasingly bringing the two-year-old conflict to the doorstep of President Bashar al-Assad. Both sides are engaged in a military standoff in much of the country, and Damascus...

AMMAN, Jordan — The U.S. and several key allies looked again Wednesday for a strategy to end Syria's civil war, their united efforts unable at the moment to stem the Assad regime's military gains and Washington still unwilling to join those providing the rebels with lethal military aid. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry allowed that President Barack Obama won't send American troops to Syria. But he made clear that more aid to the rebels would be coming if the regime refuses to cooperate with an...

When reading "Bunker Hill," Nathaniel Philbrick's vivid narrative of the Boston area militia skirmishes that sparked the American Revolution in 1775, I couldn't help thinking about more contemporary revolutions. The Committees of Correspondence conjured up comparisons to the role played in Tahrir Square by Facebook and other social networks. The affair of the purloined Hutchinson Letters reminded me of WikiLeaks, the rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes reminded me of Twitter, and the...

BEIRUT — Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are beginning to turn the tide of the country's war, bolstered by a new strategy, the support of Iran and Russia and the assistance of fighters with Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. A series of modest, scattered gains by government forces in recent weeks has produced no decisive breakthrough. But the advances have been made in strategically important locations and point to a new level of direction and energy previously unseen in the army's performance, military...

BEIRUT — Lebanese groups on opposite ends of the nation's polarized political spectrum are starting to play a more public role in the Syrian civil war, rendering Lebanon's stated policy of neutrality toward the two-year conflict increasingly obsolete and threatening the tenuous stability of this Arab country. Although the Lebanese militant and political group Hezbollah has acknowledged little about its role in the fighting next door, Syrian rebels and an analyst close to the Shiite...

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...

NAIROBI, May 17 -- A major offensive by Somalia's Islamist rebels is posing the most serious challenge yet to the country's latest central government, reviving long-standing concerns that the chaotic Horn of Africa nation could fall entirely to militants with alleged ties to al-Qaeda. Ten days of heavy fighting across the bombed-out capital of Mogadishu and other areas has pitted the Islamist rebels -- now operating openly with hundreds of fighters from the United States, Britain , Pakistan , Chechnya and...

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels are making significant advances in their battle against government forces, raising new questions about President Bashar al-Assad's ability to hold on to power and adding urgency to the quest by the international community for a unified and effective political opposition that could take control should his regime collapse. In the past week, the rebels have seized five important military facilities in the north, the east and near the capital, Damascus, capturing sizable quantities of weaponry,...

GOMA, Congo — M23 rebels fired two rockets into the eastern Congo city of Goma, killing one person and wounding four, officials said, in an apparent spillover from three days of fighting raging north of the city. The attack underscores the heightening tension in Congo and comes as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Congo's capital far to the west for a two-day visit. He is expected to visit Goma, where a new U.N. military brigade is being formed to attack rebel groups and bring...

BEIRUT — Syria's main opposition alliance on Wednesday urged fighters from around the country to reinforce a rebel-held town under attack by President Bashar Assad's troops and their allies from the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. With its appeal, the Syrian National Coalition sought to bolster embattled rebel forces in Qusair who for a fourth straight day Wednesday came under fierce assault by government troops. The town, which is near the border with...

WASHINGTON — A Senate panel voted on Tuesday to provide weapons to rebels battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the first time lawmakers have endorsed the aggressive U.S. military step of arming the opposition in the 2-year-old civil war. With a degree of trepidation, the Foreign Relations Committee voted 15-3 for a bill that would provide lethal assistance and military training to vetted rebel groups, and would slap sanctions on...

It's a rule of thumb in Middle East conflicts that whenever peace talks are announced, each side steps up the fighting so it can grab as much territory as possible before the cease-fire lines are drawn. This struggle for position is happening now in Syria, in the run-up to planned negotiations in Geneva next month that will be co-sponsored by the United States and Russia. But the battling on the ground is so intense, and the demand for additional weapons so vocal, that a skeptical person should ask whether the Geneva...

BANGUI, Central African Republic — Some members of the rebel alliance who overthrew the president of Central African Republic are protesting outside the luxury hotel where their leader is based. Their demonstration marks a dangerous development, underscoring the divisions that are emerging within the Seleka rebel movement. The rebels outside the Hotel Ledger Plaza Bangui said Tuesday they were dissatisfied with their living conditions since invading the...

GOMA, Congo — Fighting between the M23 rebels and the army continued for a second day Tuesday near Congo's eastern provincial capital of Goma, in clashes that have so far killed 19 people, all of them either soldiers or rebels, officials said. A Congolese military spokesman Col. Olivier Hamuli said that the fighting in the village of Mutaho, 10 kilometers (6 miles) northeast of Goma, broke out early Tuesday after M23 rebels tried to take back positions lost to the army in fighting on...

In gun lore it's known as the Revolt at Cincinnati. On May 21, 1977, and into the morning of May 22, a rump caucus of gun rights radicals took over the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association. The rebels wore orange-blaze hunting caps. They spoke on walkie-talkies as they worked the floor of the sweltering convention hall. They suspected that the NRA leaders had turned off the air-conditioning in hopes that the rabble-rousers would lose enthusiasm. The Old Guard was caught by...

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...

MADRID — Spain favors a partial lifting of sanctions against Syria that would allow the delivery of "defense material" to rebel groups to help protect the population, its foreign minister said Tuesday. To date, Spain has defended sending only non-lethal aid. Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo said Syrians should decide their own future, but he added that Spain was "in favor of authorizing delivery of defense material for people's protection," a stance he said was shared by many European Union partners.

BEIRUT — Backed by elite troops of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, Syrian government forces fought rebels in a strategic opposition-held Syrian town near the Lebanese border for the third straight day Tuesday. Lebanese security officials said fighting between Syrian troops and rebels over the town of Qusair had spread to the village of Hit, on the Syrian side near the border with Lebanon. Two opposition fighters were killed and several others wounded, said the...