EA WorldView

2045 GMT: Syria. Despite all the violence, there are still protests, and those protests offer a united front against the Syrian government. It is the protests that first drew the fire of the regime, and it was the protests that first gave credence to the slogan "the people want the execution of the President," and it was the protests that first gave the Free Syrian Army legitimacy in the first place. Because of the violence, protests are smaller and less frequent - but even after more than 22,000 deaths, they are never far away.

The LCC posts a video claiming to show a night protest in Harasta, a suburb of Damascus where bombs and shells have fallen for days (map):

2015 GMT: Afghanistan. Yet another "Green on Blue" attack, where Afghanistan forces fire on NATO soldiers:

tagged

Bashar al-Assad,

Fawzi Abdel A'al,

Hamed al-Mutlak,

Iraq,

Libya,

Syria

Monday

Aug132012

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A No-Fly Zone?

Monday, August 13, 2012 at 10:24 |

James Miller in

1924 GMT: Syria. According to the Local Coordinating Committees of Syria, 100 people have been killed today by regime forces:

56 were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs; 17 in Homs; 14 in Daraa; 7 in Deir Ezzor (6 of them were martyred yesterday and their bodies were discovered today); 3 in Idlib; 2 in Hama; and 1 in Lattakia.

That number does not differentiate between civilians and insurgents, and does not include regime casualties. Syrian State media has also stopped reporting number of security forces killed in this conflict.

1900 GMT: Syria. This afternoon there are reports of unusually high levels of regime shelling in Daraa province. So far, there are reliable reports from Busra al Sham to the east of Daraa, (map), Al Harak to the north east (map), Tafas to the north (map, see update below), and perhaps most interesting Ghabagheb, between Daraa and Damascus (map). Furthermore, the LCC reports extremely intense shelling in Darayya, a town southwest of Damascus on the road to Daraa (map). As is probably obvious from looking at these locations, nearly the entire road from Daraa to Darayya is reportedly being shelled. As we see from the reports from Tafas (below), that may not be a coincidence, but may be a response to the Free Syrian Army being increasingly active.

tagged

Sheikh Khalifa al Khalifa,

Turkey

Monday

Jul302012

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Is Aleppo "A Nail in Assad's Coffin"?

Monday, July 30, 2012 at 13:25 |

1921 GMT: Syria. The Guardian has a pair of stories on the growing role of jihadists in the conflict. Martin Chulov, drawing from residents and a Turkish smuggler, reports on the growing number of foreigners crossing into Syria from Turkey in the past two weeks, some saying that they are planning to travel to Aleppo to join the battle.

Many of the men reportedly come from the Caucasus, while others have arrived from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Gulf Arab states.

Insurgent leaders say about 15-20 foreign fighters have been crossing each day since mid-July, trying to join up with an estimated 200-300 foreigners already in the country.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad speaks to Syrian fighters who claim connections with Al Qa'eda and car bombings.

February 14 Youth Coalition,

tagged

Abdel Basset Sayda,

Abdel Jabbar al-Oqaidi,

Al Wefaq,

Bahrain,

Iraq,

Kurdish National Council,

SSyrian National Council,

Leon Panetta,

Massud Barzani,

Syria

Friday

Jul062012

Kuwait Feature: The Politics of a "Sinking Ship" (Al-Sumait)

Friday, July 6, 2012 at 7:05 |

Emir of KuwaitFor now, it is clear that the current political system is neither monarchial nor democratic enough to exploit the benefits of either. The lesson appears to be that a country cannot balance power effectively between anappointed cabinet and an elected parliament. In an absolute monarchy, the king calls the shots and appoints who he wants to help him govern. By contrast, in a fully democratic system, competing ideologies vie for political dominance through various electoral systems, and the government branches function as a system of checks and balances. But in Kuwait, where the systems are mixed, the executive and legislative branches are inherently locked in a power struggle.

This almost guarantees perpetual confrontation rather than some degree of symbiosis. The hybrid approach does not appear to be a formula for effective governance, but may instead be a structural defect that will continue to foster the kind of political chaos for which Kuwait is increasingly known. It could be argued that the real question going forward is not how Kuwait will navigate through the current storm, but rather when (or if) it will be able to effectively repair its sinking ship.

tagged

Fahed Al-Sumait,

Jadaliyya,

Sheikh Sabah al Ahmed al Jaber al Sabah

Friday

Jun292012

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 139 Die as Assad Talks of "Eliminating Terrorists" to Save Lives

Friday, June 29, 2012 at 11:42 |

James Miller in

1834 GMT: Syria. According to the Local Coordinating Committees of Syria, a network of activists, 54 people have been killed so far today:

13 martyrs were reported in Homs; 11 in Deir Ezzor; 10 in Hama, most of whom were martyred in the Souran massacre; 6 in Aleppo; 5 in Daraa; 4 in Idlib; 3 in Damascus Suburbs,1 in Damascus and 1 in Jableh.

1828 GMT: Syria. These fighters in the Free Syrian Army claim to have destroyed 12 armored vehicles in Khan as Subil, Idlib (map).

They also claim to have captured the BMP armored vehicle, visible in the bottom of the frame:

tagged

Ahmed Radhi,

Bahrain,

Bashar al-Assad,

Bashir,

Egypt,

Syria

Wednesday

Jun272012

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Assad Declares, "We Are In a Real State of War"

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 9:57 |

View Syria - 2012 June 26 - EA Worldview in a larger map

An interactive map of Tuesday's developments in Syria

2220 GMT: Syria. Below we have posted an interactive map, compiled by myself and our intern, Josh Moss. Each flag on the map links to a specific live entry, an effort to impose order on a bloody and chaotic day in Syria. You can click on the link below the map to see it in a large window.

View Syria - 2012 June 27 - EA Worldview in a larger map

2210 GMT: Syria At least 104 people have been killed today, including at least 20 children, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria:

42 martyrs were reported in Idlib, 15 in the Damascus Suburbs, 14 in Deir Ezzor, 10 in Daraa, 10 in Homs, 8 in Qamishli, 3 in Hama, 1 in Hasakeh, and 1 in Aleppo.

The numbers are staggeringly high, as they have been all week, and most of last week. The number of dead children is just heartbreaking, however. Among the dead, 10 year old Badreddine Sadeq, killed today in Aleppo:

tagged

Friday

Jun222012

Kuwait Feature: A Guide to the Political Conflict (Ulrichsen)

Friday, June 22, 2012 at 7:11 |

Protesters storm the Kuwaiti Parliament, November 2011

Kuwait's Emir on Monday took the unprecedented step of activating article 106 of the constitution, giving him the right to suspend the National Assembly for one month. It marked the first time in Kuwait's 50-year parliamentary history that the assembly has been suspended in this way, although it was twice dissolved unconstitutionally (in 1976 and in 1986), and has been dissolved constitutionally four times since 2006 alone. Two days later, the Constitutional Court issued an even more momentously abrupt decision as they ruled that the February 2012 election was void and ordered the return of the previous assembly. The ruling by Kuwait's highest court is final and cannot be challenged, and followed a challenge to the constitutionality of December's decree that called for new elections following the dissolution of the previous assembly on December 6 2011.

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen,

tagged

Emir of Kuwait,

Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Sabah

Tuesday

Jun192012

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 90 Die as Obama and Putin Talk About Conflict

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 20:10 |

2145 GMT: Egypt. Rumours have circulated for hours that former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak suffered a stroke today. Now a Ministry of Interior spokesman has confirmed the report, while State news agency MENA says Mubarak is "clinically dead" after he was moved from prison to a military hospital.

MENA said Mubarak's heart stopped and a defibrillator was used to restart it.

1925 GMT: Egypt. The massive crowd in Cairo's Tahrir Square tonight, protesting military rule:

tagged

Barack Obama,

Egypt,

Supreme Council of the Armed Forces,

Nabeel Rajab,

PKK,

Paolo Dall'Oglio,

Russia,

Said Yousif Almuhafda,

Turkey,

Vladimir Putin

Sunday

Jun102012

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 96 Die Amid International Fiddling

Sunday, June 10, 2012 at 9:17 |

A Saturday evening rally in the Bustan Al Qasr section of Aleppo

1930 GMT: Libya. Fighting between government forces and Toubou tribesmen has continued for a second day, with at least 16 people killed.

Government officials said the fighting began after members of the Toubou tribe attacked a checkpoint and tried to gain access to a security building to steal vehicles. However, representatives of the Toubou tribe said they were shelled by the Libya Shield Brigade, former insurgents under Government control, with residents killed and houses burned.

Meanwhile, in Tripoli, officials confirmed that Assembly elections planned for later this month has been postponed to 7 July. The authorities have said that extra time is needed to consider the applications of more than 4000 candidates.

tagged

Abdulbaset Sieda,

Ali Hassan,

Iraq,

Jordan,

Nuri al-Maliki,

Qatar,

Sergei Lavrov,

Syrian National Council,

William Hague,

al-Qubair Massacre

Tuesday

May012012

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Idlib Explosions Raise the Stakes

Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 11:40 |