MIDDLE EAST CENTER FOR REPORTING AND ANALYSIS

March 11 7:35pm (Baghdad time): Rockets strike Camp Taji, Iraq. 8:26pm (Baghdad time) Iraqi security forces release images of the truck and 107mm rocket laun...

View the previous live updates of the Middle East Coronavirus Daily Update (MECDU): First installment: February 15-25 Second Installment: February 25 Third I...

This is part of a live-blog that The Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis began on February 20. See our FIRST LIVE BLOG and the SECOND LIVE BLOG for...

This timeline is the second part of a timeline that goes back to 2017, see the first part here. It seeks to include details about rising US-Iran tensions and...

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN Turkey suffered unprecedented losses in Idlib on Thursday February 27, 2020 with dozens of soldiers killed and injured by Syrian regime ...

For the first installment the Middle East Coronavirus Daily Update (MECDU) of our daily updates on coronavirus in the Middle East see this link for prior to ...

US-Russia tensions appear to be increasing in eastern Syria after several incidents. A new video shows two vehicles almost collide. We documented an incident...

By MECRA staff Co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) Ilham Ahmed this week said the Syrian regime has agreed to begin political negotiations with t...

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN A US patrol in eastern Syria near Qamishli faced off against stone-throwing locals and at least two gunmen in an unusual clash that led ...

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN and MECRA STAFF Iran has appointed a new deputy commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force in the wake of the killin...

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN On November 17 I spoke to Col. Myles B. Caggins III, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the 81-member coalition to defeat ISIS. A...

Growing tensions between Israel and Iran, particularly in Syria, have led to rocket fire from Syria directed at Israel and numerous airstrikes by Israel on I...

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN On October 6, 2019 US President Donald Trump announced the US would withdraw from part of Syria, paving the way for a Turkish and Turkis...

A photo essay by Kareem Botane shows refugees who arrived after fleeing fighting and the Turkish offensive in Syria. They arrived to refugee camps in norther...

By KAREEM BOTANE The following are excerpts from interviews conducted by Kareem Botane with Syrian Kurdish refugees who succeeded in reaching Iraqi Kurdistan...

By WLADIMIR VAN WILGENBURG Text and photos by Wladimir Van Wilgenburg ISIS lost its final stronghold in Baghuz in the province of Deir Ezzor in March 2019 at
in Syria “maintains some support among Sunni Arabs along the Euphrates River and other Arab-majority areas due to tribal affiliations.” Furthermore according to a recent UN report, there are an estimated 800 ISIS fighters in the area east of the Euphrates. The SDF acknowledges in private meetings that it’s difficult to c

By STEPHANE COHEN By the end of July 2018, the rebel forces in southern Syria collapsed under the regime’s attacks and surrendered. Seeing no alternative, so...

By ADAM LUCENTE Raqqa, Syria — Two-lane roads through the vast Syrian desert connect Raqqa to government-held Aleppo, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) base...

By JONATHAN SPYER The concept of a ‘deep state’ is customarily used to describe a structure existing within and separate from the formal structures of a stat...

Abdel Basset Sarout (Abdul Basset Saroot, Abdel Basset al-Sarout, Abd Al Basset El Sarwat #Abdel_AlBasset_ElSarwot , ‏عبد الباسط الساروت), called the "voice...