GENOCIDE - South Sudan

"South Sudan's civil war spirals into genocide, leaving ghost towns in its wake" PBS NewsHour 5/1/2017

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SUMMARY:  South Sudan was founded in 2011, and now it's on the edge of collapse.  Forces allied to the president and vice president have been fighting along tribal lines.  Murderous raids on civilian communities are a favored tactic, and UN peacekeepers have been criticized for not doing more to stop them.  Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

"Millions are on the brink of war-driven starvation in South Sudan" PBS NewsHour 5/2/2017

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SUMMARY:  Countless numbers of people in South Sudan are on the run from government troops, targeted because of their tribe amid a brutal civil war.  Communities hide in the wilderness to avoid violence, but there is nothing to eat, fueling a man-made famine as aid agencies struggle to reach people.  Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

"How rape is used as a weapon in South Sudan’s war" PBS NewsHour 5/3/2017

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SUMMARY:  Rape has become a tool of war in South Sudan, wielded against women of rival tribes.  In partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports from a camp for people fleeing ethnic violence where most women are rape survivors and they don’t dare leave because they fear they will be violently assaulted.

SYRIA - America's Shame

"For this Syrian activist, hope, like his hometown, is gone" PBS NewsHour 10/24/2016

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SUMMARY:  In 2012, activist Saleh Hawa, who lead demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, had confidence in the Syrian opposition's prospects.  Four years later, none of his hopes and all of his fears have been realized.  He believed the U.S. would help put Assad out of power; now he says his country has lost faith in the world.  Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports.

MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour):  It was November 2012 in a small town in Syria, and Saleh Hawa had hopes.

With civil war roiling around him, this father of three, an English literature teacher, was leading demonstrations against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.  Hawa also headed a local civic council in his town in rebel-controlled Northwest Syria.  It was working to restore electricity and basic services destroyed by government attacks.

He sounded fairly confident then in his country's prospects.  A formal Syrian opposition coalition had just been created, with the encouragement of Western and Gulf countries.

SALEH HAWA, Local Administrative Council, Haratan, Syria:  I am optimistic, because the international community is now cooperating with this council, with this new council.  And I think, personally, that most of the Syrian people are with this council.

We are looking forward to a better future, and we are tired now.  We are tired now of war.  We are tired of shelling every day.

MARGARET WARNER:  We spoke in a walled garden in Hawa's hometown of Haratan, just northwest of Aleppo.  We then traveled to the regional headquarters of the Free Syrian Army, made up of self-declared moderate rebels.

Its Commander, Colonel Abdul-Jabbar Akidi, told us bluntly how desperately they needed weapons from the United States.

COL. ABDUL-JABBAR AKIDI, Aleppo Region Military Council (through translator):  The Syrian people will not forget any country that provides them with support, and will not forgive any country that helps the Assad regime.

MARGARET WARNER:  But in the four years since then, none of Hawa's hopes, but all of his fears, have been realized.

Haratan has been repeatedly pounded by bombing from Russian and Syrian jets, dropping not only explosive-packed barrel bombs, but cluster bombs and the fearsome incendiary white phosphorous.  When we first met Hawa, the war had killed 37,000 people.  Now it's 500,000 dead and nine million displaced.

Aleppo and the area around it has become ground zero.  Last week, the Russian military announced a short-lived cease-fire, a pause to let humanitarian aid into and around Aleppo, including Hawa's hometown.

But Hawa, whom we reconnected with via Skype, says there are few lives left to save in his town.

SALEH HAWA:  Most of the population of Haratan left the town, because there is no single house which is safe right now.  Most of the houses were completely or partially destroyed.  And they cannot be lived in again.

So, most of the families left the city, because right now there is no electricity, no water, no food.  Even the bakery was targeted.  All hospitals, all medical centers were targeted.

MARGARET WARNER:  Hawa and wife and children fled Haratan to a nearby town.  They're all safe, he said, but he's lost many friends, and himself was the target of a car bomb attack in early 2014.

He and others are still teaching at a makeshift college they call the Free University of Aleppo, but he sounds full of despair and bitterness.

SALEH HAWA:  We are being butchered under the eye of the international community.

WANTED:  International War Criminal,  Bashar al-Assad (dead or alive)

NEWSHOUR ESSAY - Friendship in Syria

"Finding friendship in the wreckage of war and revolution" PBS NewsHour 3/23/2016

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SUMMARY:  After his last deployment to Afghanistan, decorated Marine veteran and writer Elliot Ackerman went to report on the civil war in Syria.  What he found was friendship and a shared disillusion over the hopes of revolution.  In this essay, Ackerman explores the deep wounds and strong bonds forged by war.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Now to a NewsHour essay.

Earlier in the week, we heard what it was like to live through the wave of terrorism in Turkey from Elliot Ackerman, a decorated Marine veteran in Iraq and Afghanistan, and author of the new novel “Green on Blue.”

Tonight, Ackerman examines the legacy of a revolution and the deep wounds, but often strong bonds forged by war.

MIDEAST - While Syria Burns

"Russian airstrikes continue despite fragile Syrian cease-fire agreement" PBS NewsHour 2/12/2016

You didn't actually expect Russia to honor the agreement, in fact there was a built-in loop-hole.

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SUMMARY:  Seventeen nations led by the U.S. and Russia offered a Syrian cease-fire agreement in Munich Friday, to be enacted in one week.  But Russian airstrikes in the region have continued unabated, President Bashar al-Assad is still vowing to retake all of Syria, and rebel groups, who were not part of negotiations, may be reluctant to comply.  Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports.

MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour):  Moreover, the agreement allows continued airstrikes against ISIS and similar terror groups.  That provision could let Russia continuing attacking any rebel groups fighting against its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

It’s a point not lost on rebels on the ground today.

MAN (through interpreter):  I do not like the idea of cease-fire, because it might be for our benefit only for a short period of time.  But the things we’re watching right now, including airstrikes in the northern and southern rural areas or in the liberated areas that we are in, this is not called cease-fire.

MARGARET WARNER:  As if to confirm it, Assad told Agence France-Presse in an interview yesterday, before the deal was announced, that he means to retake the whole of Syria.   He said: “This is a goal we are seeking to achieve without any hesitation.  It makes no sense for us to say that we will give up any part.”

Indeed, the Syrian military and its allies, backed by Iran and by the Russian airstrikes, are now on the verge of cutting off Aleppo, the country’s largest city.  They have severed all but one of the rebels’ vital supply lines to the north from Turkey, and continue gaining ground.  That would leave Assad stronger than he has been in years.

All this leaves the various rebel factions in a precarious position.  They were not part of the Munich agreement and must now decide whether to abide by what was approved there.  Today, the main opposition umbrella group, which supports the cease-fire generally, called this one a weak agreement.

An adviser for the group predicted the Russians will intensify their bombing in the coming days, telling the “NewsHour”: “The Russians are setting the pace on the ground and they still will.  The agreement weakens us and moderate allies, while allowing Assad to set the terms.”

PBS ORIGINAL SERIES - 'Mercy Street'

Mansion House Hospital

"In ‘Mercy Street,’ Civil War trauma meets modern medical drama" PBS NewsHour 1/15/2016

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SUMMARY:  "Mercy Street," a new original series on PBS, tells the story of a one-time hotel turned Union army hospital, and is based on memoirs and letters of real Civil War medical staff.  Jeffrey Brown takes a look at how its creators combined a historical saga with a medical drama.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  Spring 1862: The carnage on the Civil War goes on, and some of the wounded and dying are brought here to Mansion House Hospital.

ACTOR:  Ah.  You must be the new nurse.  I am Dr. Hale, chief operating surgeon.

JEFFREY BROWN:  “Mercy Street” is a dramatized account based on memoirs and letters of doctors and nurses who served at a Union facility that also took in a handful of Confederate soldiers.

The real Mansion House, a one-time luxury hotel transformed into an Army hospital, was in Alexandria, Virginia, just south of Washington.  The series was filmed further south in Petersburg, Virginia, as well as in Richmond at a Civil War-period mansion, where we visited last summer as shooting was wrapping up.

Josh Radnor plays Jedediah Foster, a civilian surgeon now caught up in the pain, frustrations and blood of the war.

JOSH RADNOR, “Dr. Jedediah Foster”:  Be prepared.  This may bleed a bit.

ACTRESS:  Yes.

JOSH RADNOR:  It’s life and death in a hospital.  Plus, you throw the Civil War on top of it, you have got pretty much the most dramatic situation you could ever imagine.

There’s this feeling that it’s entirely grounded in its time and place, and, at the same time, it feels modern and urgent and vital.  It feels like you’re walking into this, like, bustling, alive, relatable story with people that you recognize somehow.

ACTOR:  This is what happens to traitors.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Alexandria was the only Confederate town occupied by the Union for all four years of the war, and much of the drama here involves the interaction of Northerners and Southerners.

They’re enemies, but also at times forced to work side by side, as with two volunteer nurses, one a staunch New England abolitionist, the other an inexperienced young woman whose life has been upended by occupation.

YEMEN - The Civil War

"This is what a civil war looks like" PBS NewsHour 6/19/2015

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SUMMARY:  Many people think of the civil war in Yemen in broad terms - Shia versus Sunni, Saudi Arabia versus Iran.  But what does the constant fighting mean to those in the country?  Jane Ferguson examines how the ongoing struggle is affecting everyday Yemenis, providing an on-the-ground perspective on the war.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Today in Geneva, Switzerland, talks ended between Yemen’s exiled government and Houthi Shiite rebels, who control that country’s capital.  The negotiations failed to reach even a temporary cease-fire.

Tonight, we take a close at the personal cost of the conflict, but first a bit of background.  The latest turmoil can be traced back four years to the Arab spring, when an uprising ultimately led to the ousting of then President Ali Abdullah Saleh.  Earlier this year, Houthi rebels, with the help of soldiers still loyal to the former leader, forced Yemen’s current president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, into exile.  That sparked an international military response led by Saudi Arabia.

The subsequent fighting has killed more than 1,000 civilians and displaced more than one million.

“NewsHour” special correspondent Jane Ferguson traveled to Yemen to see firsthand what life is like in rebel-controlled territory.

JANE FERGUSON (NewsHour):  These rebels have ruled much of Yemen for almost a year, marching through the streets of their greatest prize, the capital, Sanaa, in a show strength and defiance.

Houthi gunmen control the streets and their politicians control the government.  The U.S. and Saudi Arabia accuse Iran of backing the Houthis.  And this was Saudi Arabia’s answer to that close relationship.  Intensive airstrikes have pounded the country for three months.

My God.  So, this is where the rocket fell.

We were among the first Western journalists to enter Sanaa since that bombardment began in March.  We found neighborhoods destroyed and people terrified.

SYRIA - War Rages On

"Can anything break the Syrian war stalemate?" PBS Newshour 3/16/2015

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SUMMARY:  Since the start of Syria's war four years ago, more than 200,000 people have died and millions have been made homeless.  Two rounds of peace talks have already failed.  What can be done to bring an end to the war?  Judy Woodruff talks to Steven Heydemann of the United States Institute of Peace, Hisham Melhem of Al Arabiya News and former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  On Israel’s border, a morbid anniversary passes this week for a raging war which has claimed more than 200,000 lives, and has left millions homeless.

Four years in, and there’s no end in sight to the killing in Syria.  Just today, new government airstrikes hit a suburb of Damascus.  And Syrian President Bashar al-Assad insisted again he’s staying until his own countrymen decide otherwise.

PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD, Syria (through interpreter): Whether they say I remain or not, the Syrian people have the final say on this particular matter.  Anything that came from outside the borders was only words and interference that disappears after a while.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  That last was aimed at Secretary of State John Kerry.  Sunday, on CBS, he suggested any effort toward a transition in Syria would include Assad after all.

JOHN KERRY, Secretary of State:  I am convinced that, with the efforts of our allies and others, there will be increased pressure on Assad.

QUESTION:  And you would be willing to negotiate with him?

JOHN KERRY:  Well, we have to negotiate in the end.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Kerry’s words raised eyebrows, but U.S. officials quickly insisted President Obama’s policy has not changed from this in 2012.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  President al-Assad has lost legitimacy.  He needs to step down.

UKRAINE - The New Cold War, Update

"Ukraine loses key town to separatists despite cease-fire" PBS NewsHour 2/18/2015

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SUMMARY:  The cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia seemed in danger of unraveling after Russian-backed separatists forced thousands of Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the strategic town of Debaltseve.  Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appealed to international community to respond.  Alex Thomson of Independent Television News reports from Ukraine.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  As we reported earlier, thousands of Ukrainian troops withdrew today from Debaltseve in Eastern Ukraine after a relentless assault by Russian-backed separatists.

Alex Thomson of Independent Television News reports from near the key transit hub, as the three-day-old cease-fire appeared to be unraveling.

ALEX THOMSON, Independent TV News:  The rebel flag hoisted over Debaltseve today, and across the day, hundreds of Ukrainian troops have been leaving town, telling stories that speak of just one word, defeat.

MAN (through interpreter):  It was very heavy.  We couldn’t even go to take food or water.  Yes, we were urinating in a can, all the time we were sitting in the bunker very, very heavy shelling.  We were praying all the time and said goodbye to our lives a hundred times.  They had really good and heavy artillery.

ALEX THOMSON:  Kiev says it is a tactical withdrawal with heavy weapons.  But its president is begging the world to act.

"What the defeat at Debaltseve means for Ukraine" PBS NewsHour 2/18/2015

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SUMMARY:  The loss of the key hub town Debaltseve to Russian-backed separatists is a significant strategic and morale setback for Ukraine.  Chief foreign correspondent Margaret Warner joins Gwen Ifill to discuss potential response to the latest military action.

ISIS - Regional Allies in the Fight?

"Can U.S. mobilize regional allies to fight Islamic State?" PBS NewsHour 9/15/2014

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GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  The debate over crafting a coalition moves next to Congress, when Secretary of State Kerry testifies at a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

So, how much support is the U.S. getting for its coalition?

For answers, we turn to retired Colonel Derek Harvey.  He was an intelligence officer and special adviser to General David Petraeus, and he is now director of the Global Initiative on Civil Society and Conflict at the University of South Florida.  And Steven Simon, he was senior director for Middle Eastern and North African affairs on the National Security Council staff from 2011 to 2012.  He’s now a senior fellow at the Middle East institute.

Thank you both for joining us.

Colonel Harvey, how well is this coalition that we keep talking about coming together, from your lights?

COL. DEREK HARVEY (RET.), Former Army intelligence officer:  Well, I think it’s too early to tell at the moment, but there are major concerns.

I applaud the efforts to hold the conference in Paris.  And the right things are being said.  But, given that, moving beyond that, the coalition is going to be required to actually do some heavy lifting.  And the test will be in the substantive and meaningful actions by coalition members, contributing in the kinetic realm, as well as just contributing verbally and with information campaigns and some legal mechanisms to diminish recruitment.

And that means an Arab country or countries need to get out front and be there in the kinetic operations, and not just offer in-kind assistance, air refueling, intelligence support, basing.  They need to be participants in this, because it can’t be the Westerners doing this alone.

GWEN IFILL:  Steven Simon, do you see that happening, the involvement from the Arab countries that Derek Harvey is talking about?

STEVEN SIMON, Former National Security Council staff:  Well, I think it is going to be an uphill battle for Washington.

Secretary Kerry has approached it with his customary energy, but I think the president has given him a very hard job.  The Arab states whose cooperation we’re seeking are mostly concerned about unseating Assad in Syria.

They’re concerned about regime change there.  They’re not so concerned, I think, about defeating ISIL, or ISIS.  They have got — they have got their goal, and they have been maneuvering toward that goal for several years now, fighting essentially a proxy war in Syria against Assad.

So what the United States is asking them to do, really, is to shift gears and change direction in a fairly major way.  Now, I don’t think it’s an impossible battle in terms of air support.  I mean, real kinetic, as Derek Harvey put it, kinetic support for U.S. operations from the United Arab Emirates and perhaps from Saudi Arabia.

But the Saudis seemed very focused on providing arm-and-train help for the fight against ISIS.  The UAE has staged air operations, and they staged them rather far from the United Arab Emirates, as far away as Libya.  So it’s quite possible they would join the United States in these kinetic attacks, in the air attacks that we’re talking about, but I think these will take a while to arrange.

These are complicated things to work out, to harmonize.  The United States needs to work with these other countries on divisions of labor, on deconfliction, on the specific signals, so that the two sides can tell who’s friend and who is foe.  There are a lot of technical issues that need to be — that need to be sorted through.  And I think that that is all going to take time.

UKRAINE - Russia Stepping Back From the Brink?

"What will shape the upcoming meeting between Poroshenko and Putin?" PBS NewsHour 8/23/2014

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HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  President Petro Poroshenko is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Minsk on Tuesday for their first encounter since June.

For more, we’re joined by Steve Sestanovich, a senior fellow from the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. and author of the book “Maximalist:  America in the World from Truman to Obama.”

So, did Vladimir Putin win in the world or war of perception so to speak, or did he back down?

STEVE SESTANOVICH:  He certainly did something that was unexpected.  Yesterday, everybody was predicting that maybe we were finally going over the cliff to war that this time the Russians were serious about an invasion and all hell was going to break loose.

Today they are taking the troops back and Putin has not done the big thing that he seemed to be threatening, which was to make his troops, his men, his trucks a shield for the separatists in Eastern Ukraine.

And the same landscape is really there now that was there before this truck convoy story.

Putin has to figure out how to support the separatists, who are basically going down, without over involvement that will excite too much opposition from the West and embroil him in a big mess that he wants to stay out of.

IRAQ - The Vulnerable Failed State

"How ISIL capitalized on vulnerabilities of Iraq’s security forces" PBS NewsHour 6/24/2014

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SUMMARY:  The United Nations estimates that, at minimum, 1,000 people have been killed in two weeks of fighting in Iraq.  Judy Woodruff talks to two former U.S. Army officers who served in Iraq -- retired Lt. Col. Douglas Ollivant and retired Col. Derek Harvey -- about the strengths and weaknesses of the Iraqi security forces, the role of incoming U.S. special forces and the spread of ISIL’s influence in the region.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  For more on the situation in Iraq, we turn to two former Army officers who served in that country.  Retired Colonel Derek Harvey was an intelligence officer and special adviser to the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus.  He’s now a professor of practice at the University of South Florida.  And retired Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Ollivant had two tours in Iraq.  He was also the director for Iraq on the National Security Council during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.  He’s now a managing partner in a consulting company which does business in Iraq.

SYRIA - U.S. Policy Has Not Worked

"Former U.S. ambassador says he could ‘no longer defend’ Obama administration’s Syria policy" PBS NewsHour 6/3/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Our chief foreign affairs correspondent, Margaret Warner sat down with Ford today, on the first day he has agreed to be interviewed on television since his departure, to discuss the election and what he sees as the failures of U.S. policy.

MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour):  Ambassador Ford, thank you for joining us.

ROBERT FORD, Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria:  It’s my pleasure to be here.

MARGARET WARNER:  So, President Assad seems to be coasting to another victory in an election.  What’s going to be the impact of that, both on the political situation and the battlefield situation?

ROBERT FORD:  I don’t think it will have much impact on the battlefield.  I have no indication that the opposition and the armed opposition groups are going to stop fighting, so I think the election will have no result on that.

Politically, it will cheer Assad’s supporters.  I have seen pictures today of celebrations in Syria.  But it really is simply a signal.  The election is a signal to us to, to other countries in the region, to Europe, et cetera, that Assad is not leaving, he is staying, deeply entrenched in the capital in Syria, even as other parts of the country remain outside his control.

MARGARET WARNER:  And so is it time for us to recognize that, in fact, he’s going to be there a long time, that the whole strategy both of the opposition and the Western- and Gulf- and neighbor-backed efforts has not worked?

SYRIA - City of Homs, As the World Fiddles

As the World fiddles, Syria burns.

"A look inside the city of Homs, central battlefield of Syria’s war" PBS NewsHour 4/1/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  We turn now to Syria, where three years of civil war have left more than 140,000 people dead.  The city of Homs was once seen as the capital of the revolution.  Now it’s mostly controlled by Assad government forces.

We take a look inside the besieged city with a report from Lindsey Hilsum of Independent Television News.

LINDSEY HILSUM, ITN:  Everyone’s a suspect, so the soldiers search each car before letting it through.  There’s not much beauty near the front line in Homs.  Maybe that’s why they have decorated their checkpoint barrier.

The lieutenant walked me through the neighborhood of Bab Sparr.  He didn’t want to show his face.  The last battle, he told me, will be very soon.  They’re ready for it.  The soldiers say that this is as far as we can come.  The front line is just beyond those buildings, less than 50 yards away.

It’s quiet now during the daytime, but there’s still fighting every night.  What the soldiers say is the United Nations has taken the civilians out.  It’s only fighters in there, so they want to go in and finish the job.  Today, the soldiers are relaxing.  They seem pretty confident.  Two years ago, government forces pummeled rebel-held suburbs in Homs with artillery.  Then they starved them out.

When the U.N. evacuated civilians from Old Homs in February, scores of hungry rebel fighters came too.  Less than 1,000 are believed to be holding out.

SYRIA - Hezbollah Widens Conflict

More on 'the West (including the U.S.) fiddles while Syria burns.'

"Hezbollah close to cutting off key route for Syrian rebels, refugees" by Nicholas Blanford, Christian Science Monitor 3/14/2014

A painstaking Hezbollah and regime offensive in Syria's Qalamoun region is coming to its climax. A victory would sever the main route to Lebanon for fleeing civilians and military supplies.

The grainy black-and-white infrared images from the night-vision camera show a group of rebel fighters, apparently members of Al Qaeda linked Jabhat al-Nusra, as they creep through the night, unaware Hezbollah is watching them.

After a few moments, a Hezbollah man monitoring the screen in an operations room gives the order: “Abdullah, go ahead and detonate.”  A massive explosion fills the screen and the rebel fighters disappear behind a black cloud of smoke.  The sound of the blast reaches the operations room seconds later.

The ambush occurred along a trail used by Syrian rebels to sneak from Lebanon into Syria, where the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah is spearheading an offensive to seize the mountainous Qalamoun area north of Damascus.

The fighting has centered on Yabroud, a Sunni and Christian town and the largest in northern Qalamoun.  It has been battered for weeks by Syrian Army artillery fire and the notorious barrel bombs, a mix of explosives, and fuel oil dropped from helicopters as Hezbollah fighters gradually seized outlying areas.

“We are on the outskirts of Yabroud and I can see the enemy as clearly as I can see you,” says a veteran Hezbollah fighter who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Jamal.  He returned from the Qalamoun front a week earlier and agreed to discuss the offensive on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The Assad regime launched the offensive against Qalamoun in mid-November in order to secure the critical highway that links Damascus to the Mediterranean coast.  It swiftly seized three towns in the first weeks of the campaign, but the offensive slowed as Hezbollah’s fighters pursued a more cautious approach toward the key objective: Yabroud.

Yabroud is the last significant rebel-held town adjacent to a Sunni-populated area of Lebanon that has been a bedrock of support for rebels.  Smuggling tracks link the Lebanese town of Arsal to Yabroud, used by civilians fleeing the fighting in Qalamoun and by rebels as a supply line.  Some of the car bombs that targeted Shiite Hezbollah-supporting areas of Lebanon in recent months are believed to have originated in Yabroud.

Last week, a village three miles north of Yabroud was captured, and several hills overlooking the town have also been seized.  An escape route to Lebanon has been left open in the hope that the remaining rebels and civilians will flee, rather than stand and fight.

“We have no orders to invade Yabroud.  We are doing reconnaissance and sniping,” says Abu Jamal.

Hezbollah units are deployed in Qalamoun for a month at a time – instead of the usual week in Damascus and its suburbs – because of the difficulty reaching the frontlines.  The route entails a lengthy, uncomfortable drive in SUVs on dirt tracks from Hezbollah-controlled areas on the Lebanese side of the border, across a barren rugged mountain chain into northern Qalamoun.

The whine of Hezbollah's reconnaissance drones can be heard sometimes along the border.  The fighters use sophisticated long-range surveillance cameras and heavy weaponry from the Syrian military, including the powerful improvised short-range rocket known as the Volcano, in which a barrel of explosives is fitted to a 107mm or 122mm rocket motor.  The Volcano has proved devastating in urban environments, sometimes bringing down a building with one strike.

Abu Jamal says that Hezbollah fighters are even operating tanks and self-propelled four-barreled 23mm anti-aircraft guns, known as Shilkas, an unusual addition to its capabilities that indicates Hezbollah’s increasing sophistication.

Yet it has taken a slow, cautious approach toward Yabroud, a lesson learned from the May and June assault on the town of Qusayr, five miles north of the Lebanese border.  The rebels lost the 17-day battle, but it came at a high price for Hezbollah: 70 to 110 fatalities.

Civilians have not returned to Qusayr, and today it has become a Hezbollah base, according to Abu Jamal.  The battle-scarred ruins are used for urban warfare training, he says.

It is less certain that the overstretched Syrian Army can secure northern Qalamoun like it did Qusayr once Yabroud falls, because the regime lacks the manpower to indefinitely garrison the rugged mountainous terrain.  Rebels based in Lebanon could slip back into the area around Yabroud fairly easily.  The only way to prevent the area from falling back into rebel hands may be to bring the war to Lebanon – and no one seems ready to do that.

“The problem is that Hezbollah’s Qalamoun offensive will be wasted if the major rebel bases around Arsal… are not also neutralized because neither Hezbollah nor the Syrian regime will have enough manpower to keep the Qalamoun mountain area after the conquest,” says a European diplomat in Beirut with extensive contacts in Syria.

“But any attempt to take control of Arsal and other Sunni areas in the Bekaa Valley conducted by the Lebanese army, backed by Hezbollah, is likely to create much wider sectarian division and conflict in Lebanon.”

SYRIA - Humanitarian Crisis Update

"Humanitarian aid groups prepare for long-term crisis in Syria" PBS Newshour 2/27/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  We turn now to two who have focused on the humanitarian crisis caused by the Syrian civil war.  Nancy Lindborg is assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, in charge of conflict and humanitarian assistance.  And Michael Gerson is a Washington Post columnist and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush.

And we welcome you both to the NewsHour.

Nancy Lindborg, we see these terrible pictures, almost impossible to believe.

How did it get like this?

NANCY LINDBORG, U.S. Agency for International Development:  You know, it’s been steadily escalating, particularly in the last year.

We have seen the number of people who have been displaced rise by three times in the last year.  And the Yarmouk people who you saw are part of 12 cities that are literally besieged, 250,000 people, many of whom haven’t received aid for months and months.  And they’re eating cats and dogs.
----
MICHAEL GERSON, The Washington Post:  But a lot of the humanitarian organizations are now beginning to plan for five years, 10 years out.  This is going — not going to be solved in any short amount of time.

Champion The Children of Syria

SYRIA - UN Report, Torture and Executions of Children

If you believe in reincarnation, this could be proof.  Bashar al-Assad as the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler and the evil brought on the world.

"UN says children caught in Syria’s civil war suffer ‘unspeakable’ abuse" PBS Newshour 2/6/2014

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SUMMARY:  A UN report has found that in addition to the thousands of children who have been injured, killed or displaced as part of the war, the Syrian government has also tortured kids they suspect of being connected to the opposition, while others have been executed by armed opposition groups.  Judy Woodruff learns more from Leila Zerrougui, a UN special representative for children and armed conflict.

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  This week, the United Nations released a report on children and the Syria conflict.  It found that the Syrian government is responsible for thousands of deaths, and charged that it put children as young as 11 in prisons where they suffered — quote — “beatings with metal cables, sexual violence and mock executions.”

It also accuses armed opposition groups of summary executions of children.

Joining me now is one of the authors of the report.  She is Leila Zerrougui, the U.N. special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict.

SYRIA - Talks End With No Clear Progress

Ah, yes, the same old delay tactics by a dictatorship.  And the killing goes on, and  on, and on....

The West (including the U.S.) is allowing this to continue.  I sadly believe that we are living if fantasyland if we continue to believe in diplomacy as a solution to this problem.

"Syria talks end without clear progress or assurance of an encore" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 1/31/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Despite measured optimism for progress from the UN envoy, neither sides in the Syrian conflict have budged from their positions during nine days of peace talks in Switzerland, with the government delegation unwilling to commit to more talks.  Meanwhile, Jeffrey Brown reports, the situation on the ground may only be getting worse.

"Who’s to blame for failed Syrian peace talks, and what’s next?" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 1/31/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Joshua Landis of the University of Oklahoma join Jeffrey Brown to discuss their reactions to the first round of Syrian peace talks, the delays for the Assad regime in destroying chemical weapons and what’s next for both diplomacy and the war.

SYRIA - Geneva Talks Update

"Despite different takes on Geneva communique, Syrian delegations agree to meet" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 1/24/2014

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  The United Nations' lead envoy on Syria struggled today to hold talks together aimed at ending that country's civil war.

As Hari Sreenivasan reports, they may have reached a breakthrough.

HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour):  Demonstrators from both sides of the Syrian conflict highlighted the diplomatic divisions, as the Assad regime and the opposition failed to meet face-to-face today.

Then came this:

LAKHDAR BRAHIMI, U.N. Envoy to Syria:  Tomorrow, we expect, we have agreed that we will meet in same room.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi made the announcement after hours of meeting separately with the delegations.

LAKHDAR BRAHIMI:  The discussions I have had with the two parties were encouraging.  And we are looking forward to our meetings tomorrow morning and tomorrow afternoon.  As you know, the whole process is based on the Geneva communique of the 30th of June, 2012.  And I think the two sides understand that very well and accept it.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  That communique calls for a transitional government, and Brahimi acknowledged there are different interpretations of its provisions.

Earlier, the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition insisted President Bashar al-Assad accept those terms before any direct talks.

Secretary-General Badr Jamous:

BADR JAMOUS, Secretary-General, Syrian National Council (through translator):  The negotiations will be indirect until the regime signs Geneva I.  We came to implement the agreement. And if the regime will not abide by it, then direct contact will not be beneficial.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  But the Syrian delegation gave no ground publicly.  Instead, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said his delegation would leave tomorrow if serious talks didn't begin.

Meanwhile, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Secretary of State John Kerry reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to ridding Syria of Assad.

JOHN KERRY, Secretary of State:  Absent a political solution, we know where this leads, more refugees, more terrorists, more extremism, more brutality from the regime, more suffering from the Syrian people.

And we do not believe that we or anyone should tolerate one man's brutal effort to cling to power.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  As the day ended, expectations for tomorrow's talks in Geneva remained low, but, as one Western diplomat put it, "Every day that they talk is a little step forward."

"Talks between Syrian government, opposition back on despite tense day in Geneva" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 1/24/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The U.N. lead envoy on Syria was able to press the reset button Friday for talks aimed at ending the country’s civil war.  Despite strong disagreement over conditions of the talks, the two sides have agreed to meet Saturday.  Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner (Newshour) briefs Hari Sreenivasan from Geneva.

SYRIA - Iran Not to Attend Peace Talks

We do NOT need a terrorist supporter at these talks.  It is Iran's support of terrorist groups that is making the war worst.

"World powers dispute whether Iran should attend Syrian peace talks" PBS Newshour 1/20/2014

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (Newshour):  Now the diplomatic struggle over the Syria peace talks.

The back-and-forth over the U.N.'s decision to invite Iran to participate continued all day, with the scheduled start of the talks less than 48 hours away.

In two days' time, world powers will gather at this hotel in Montreux, Switzerland, to try to negotiate an end to Syria's civil war.

Yesterday, in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon extended an 11th-hour invitation to Iran.

BAN KI-MOON, United Nations Secretary-General:  I believe strongly that Iran needs to be part of the solution to the Syrian crisis.

GWEN IFILL:  Ban initially said Iran accepted the goal of a transitional government in Syria that would remove President Bashar al-Assad from power.  Later, though, Iran insisted it will not accept preconditions for attending.

Hours after that, a spokesman for Ban made this announcement at the U.N.:

MARTIN NESIRKY, UN spokesman:  The secretary-general is deeply disappointed by Iranian public statements today that are not at all consistent with that stated commitment.  He continues to urge Iran to join the global consensus behind the Geneva communique.  Given that it has chosen to remain outside that basic understanding, he has decided that the one-day Montreux gathering will proceed without Iran's participation.

LEBANON - Syria Civil War's Spillover

As the West (especially the U.S.) fiddles the region burns......

"Deadly Beirut bombing kills prominent politician who was critic of Hezbollah" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 12/27/2013

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  Now to Lebanon, where a prominent politician and others were killed in a bomb attack today.

Hari Sreenivasan reports

HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour):  The powerful blast shook buildings in central Beirut this morning and left what looked like the aftermath of a battle.  A Lebanese TV channel captured the eerie silence in the streets moments after the explosion hit.  Plumes of smoke rose from flaming cars, as shaken residents tried to make sense of what had happened.

MAN (through interpreter):  As you can see, all the shops here are damaged.  I consider all this terrorism.  All this is terrorism, damaging the country and the people.  What more can we say?  God help us.  God help this country.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  The attack wounded scores and killed six people, including the main target, Mohamad Chatah, a prominent Sunni politician and former ambassador to the U.S.  He was an outspoken critic of the Assad regime in neighboring Syria and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah that is fighting for Assad.

Less than an hour before the attack, Chatah tweeted his latest criticism of the militants, saying, "Hezbollah is pressing hard to be granted similar powers in security and foreign policy matters that Syria exercised in Lebanon for 15 years."

Hezbollah denounced the assassination, but allies of Chatah took up his refrain in the hours after today's attack.

MARWAN HAMADEH, Lebanese Minister of Communications:  The target is Lebanon, its institution, its president, the whole image of this country, the convivial country, the country of democracy.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  From Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry also condemned the killing.  He called Chatah's death a terrible loss and said -- quote -- "His presence will be missed, but his vision for a united Lebanon free from sectarian violence and destabilizing interference will continue to guide our efforts."

But that goal seems far off, as the civil war in Syria has already split Lebanon into opposing political camps, with a weak caretaker government since April.  And there's been a tit-for-tat increase in bombings and other attacks in recent months.  Last month, two suicide bombings rocked the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, killing 25 people.  Iran is a backer of Hezbollah.

Today's attack was the first major strike at Beirut's upscale renovated city center in years.

"How the conflict in Syria is spreading division and violence in Lebanon" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 12/27/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  While the powerful political parties in Lebanon have talked about trying to keep things calm in their country, they support opposing sides of the Syrian civil war.  Hari Sreenivasan talks to Anne Barnard of The New York Times about the symbolism of the bombing in the center of Beirut that killed a prominent political figure.