Inside Syria: The Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect (33 page)

September 2012: Most of the historic Aleppo
souk
(market) is gutted by fire.

November 2012: Unable to establish support inside Syria, the SNC dissolves and members form the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. Al-Nusra and other ultraconservative Islamists refuse to join.

December 2012: Free Syrian Army leaders create the Supreme Military Council in an effort to coordinate all the militias in Syria. But the SMC fail to become a broad-based coalition.

December 2012: The United States puts al-Nusra on its list of terrorist organizations, citing its affiliation with al-Qaeda.

December 2012: United States and some allies recognize the new National Coalition as the Syrian people's “legitimate representative.”

January 2013: Israeli jets attack a Damascus military research center, claiming to stop shipments of Syrian arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Rebel groups regularly fire rockets and mortars into Damascus, often hitting civilian areas.

March 2013: A coalition of the FSA and Islamist rebels take Raqqa, capital of Idlib Governate. Syrian air force begins intensive bombing of rebel-controlled area. Khan Al Asal faces a small attack with chemical weapons. Rebels blame Assad. The Syrian government says it was rebels and presents evidence to UN inspectors months later.

April 2013: The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an al-Qaeda affiliate, changes its name to the Islamic State of Iraq and the al-Sham [the Levant] (ISIS), openly admitting its activities in Syria.

May 2013: A rebel commander, Abu Sakkar of the Farouq Brigades, eats the internal organs of a Syrian soldier to show his contempt for the government. The resulting video causes widespread revulsion. Government troops massacre Sunni civilians in the district of Baniyas. Pro-Assad militia kills over three hundred people. A bomb attack almost assassinates Syrian prime minister Wael Nader al-Halqi. Israel launched two different missile strikes at a warehouse allegedly storing advanced surface-to-surface missiles and other weapons.

June 2013: Syrian army and Hezbollah fighters take back control of Qusayr in northwest Syria. The government hails the victory as a turning point in the war, but the battle proves pyrrhic. At a Cairo conference of Sunni clerics, over one hundred prominent imams sign a declaration calling for jihad in Syria.

July 2013: ISIS engages in increasingly brutal actions in the parts of Idlib Governate it controls, including beheading of FSA commanders. Civilians in Raqqa complain about ISIS repression and imposition of a harsh version of Shariah law. Israel attacks a missile depot in Latakia.

August 2013: ISIS claim credit for capturing the Mennagh airbase, north of Aleppo, after a nine-month siege.

August 2013: Sarin gas attack kills hundreds of civilians living in rebel-controlled areas near Al Ghouta outside Damascus. Assad blamed the rebels. President Obama announces plans to bomb Syria, but popular opinion forces him to back down. Russia and the United States pressure Syria to eliminate its chemical weapons.

September 2013: UN weapons inspectors confirm use of chemical weapons in Al Ghouta but don't say who was responsible.

November 2013: Rebels attack the military vehicle depot in Harasta, just north of Damascus. Rebels dig a tunnel and plant bombs under the administrative building, killing over 150 soldiers and several generals. Israel again attacks a Latakia missile depot originally bombed in July.

November 2013: Major rebel groups form the Islamic Front with the aim of creating an “orthodox Islamic state.” The front excludes al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels as well as the FSA.

December 2013: In a huge setback for the Western powers, the Islamic Front seizes US weapons and supplies in FSA warehouses in Atmeh, Syria, near the Turkish border. The United States and Britain temporarily suspend nonlethal aid to the rebels.

January 2014: Al-Nusra, al-Tawheed, and other rebel groups attack ISIS in Raqqa, freeing civilian and rebel prisoners. Fighting also breaks out among rebel groups in Aleppo. A Qatar-funded report from a Syrian defecting police photographer indicates the government killed and tortured over eleven thousand people in security forces' prisons. Geneva II peace talks begin in Switzerland. The West wants to discuss establishing a transitional government, but the Assad representatives insist on discussing only rebel terrorism. Nothing tangible emerges from the Swiss meetings.

February 2014: Ayman al-Zawahri, head of al-Qaeda internationally, formally expels ISIS from al-Qaeda and throws his support behind the al-Nusra Front, another al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. The third round of peace talks end in Geneva without progress. Israel launches another missile attack near the Syrian–Lebanese border.

March 2014: After an offensive lasting months, Syria and Hezbollah forces take back Yabroud, a rebel town near Lebanon.

April 2014: Chlorine gas is used in the rebel-held village of Kafr Zeta, Hama Governate. Each side blames the other for use of chemical weapons. UN human rights commission issues a report detailing systematic torture by Syrian government. It also criticizes instances of torture used by extremist rebels.

May 2014: Through a negotiated settlement, rebels evacuate the old city area of Homs. The government claims a victory. Arab League and UN negotiator Lakhdar Brahimi resigns, telling the UN Security Council it must stop the flow of all outside arms to Syrian combatants. The United States, France, and other countries offer a UN Security Council resolution to allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Syrian war crimes. The measure excludes any possible prosecution of the United States or Israel for its actions in the Golan. Russia and China veto the measure.

June 2014: Syria holds presidential elections and Assad wins 88.7 percent of the vote; critics say the poll is meaningless. ISIS seizes wide swath of territory in northern Iraq, giving it greater credibility in Syria as well. Kurdish forces take control of the Iraqi city of Kirkuk and assert the right to form an independent Kurdish state. Kurdish leaders continue negotiations continue with the Baghdad government.

To see an updated timeline, visit
www.reeseerlich.com
.

CHAPTER 1. THE UPRISING THAT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE

1
. Ahmad Bakdouness, interview with the author, Damascus, October 5, 2011.

2
. “Leen,” interview with the author, Damascus, October 2011.

3
. Abdul Salman, interview with the author, Antakya, Turkey, August 10, 2012.

4
. Ben Hubbard, “Islamist Rebels Create Dilemma on Syria Policy,”
New York Times
, April 27, 2013,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/world/middleeast/islamist-rebels-gains-in-syria-create-dilemma-for-us.html
.

5
. Omar Mushaweh, interview with the author, Istanbul, August 12, 2012.

6
. Bashar al-Assad, interview with the author, Damascus, June 11, 2006.

7
. Translator, interview with the author, Daraa, Syria, October 4, 2011.

CHAPTER 2. LAWRENCE OF SYRIA

1
. R. Perceval Graves,
Lawrence of Arabia and His World
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1976), p. 21.

2
. T. E. Lawrence, introduction to
Travels in Arabia Deserta
, by Charles Doughty,
http://zineb-returns.blogspot.com/2012/05/te-lawrence-on-englishmen.html
.

3
. Lucy Ladikoff, “T. E. Lawrence: True and False (an Arab View),”
http://.al-bushra.org/arabwrld/lawrance.htm
.

4
. James Barr,
Setting the Desert on Fire: T. E. Lawrence and Britain's Secret War in Arabia 1916–1918
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2008), p. 25.

5
. Ibid., p. 13.

6
. Ibid., p. 29.

7
. T. E. Lawrence,
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
(London: Wordsworth Classics, 1997), p. 213.

8
. James Barr,
A Line in the Sand: The Anglo-French Struggle for the Middle East, 1914–1948
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2012), p. 58.

9
. Mudar Barakat, interview with the author, Damascus, November 15, 2013.

10
. Barr,
Line in the Sand
, p. 7.

11
. Sykes-Picot Agreement,
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Sykes-Picot_Agreement
.

12
. Lawrence,
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
, p. 67.

13
. Barr,
Line in the Sand
, p. 22.

14
. Ibid., p. 24.

15
. Josh Glancy, “Chaim Weizmann and How the Balfour Declaration Was Made in Manchester,”
Jewish Chronicle Online
, November 1, 2012,
http://thejc.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-features/89026/chaim-weizmann-and-how-balfour-declaration-was-made-manchester
.

16
. Barr,
Line in the Sand
, p. 27.

17
. Ibid., p. 29.

18
. The Balfour Declaration can be found at
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/E210CA73E38D9E1D052565FA00705C61
.

19
. Doreen Ingrams,
Palestine Papers 1917–1922: Seeds of Conflict
(London: John Murray, 1972), p. 73.

20
. Neil Tweedie, “We Must Draw on Our Historians,”
Telegraph
, August 1, 2012.

21
. Lawrence,
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
, p. 647.

22
. Elie El-Hindy, interview with the author, Lebanon, June 5, 2013.

CHAPTER 3. TREATIES, REBELLIONS, AND INDEPENDENCE: 1919–1946

1
. Julian Gorbach, “The Making of a ‘Matinee Idol': Representations of Islam in Lowell Thomas's Lawrence of Arabia,” p. 25,
http://citation.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/9/7/9/3/pages297935/p297935-1.php
.

2
. Clio Visualizing History, “The Show,”
http://www.cliohistory.org/thomas-lawrence/show/
.

3
. Richard Aldington,
Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Enquiry
(Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1976), pp. 287–88.

4
. Lowell Thomas,
With Lawrence in Arabia
, 16th ed. (London: Hutchinson, n.d.), p. 46.

5
. Ibid., p. 61.

6
. Jeremy Wilson, “Lawrence of Arabia or T. E. Lawrence?”
Military Times
,
http://telstudies.org/discussion/biography/wilson_lofa_or_tel.shtml
.

7
. Bill Swanson, ed.,
Encarta Book of Quotes
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000), p. 550.

8
. James Barr,
A Line in the Sand: The Anglo-French Struggle for the Middle East, 1914–1948
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2012), p. 62.

9
. “Agreement between Emir Feisal and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, January 3, 1919,”
http://www.mideastweb.org/feisweiz.htm
.

10
. Robert D. Kaplan,
The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite
(New York: Free Press, 1993), pp. 70–72.

11
. “The King-Crane Commission Report, August 28, 1919,”
http://www.gwpda.org/1918p/kncr.htm
. Pages 7–8 list the response from various religious and ethnic groups.

12
. Ibid., p. 9.

13
. Ibid., p. 80.

14
. Barr,
Line in the Sand
, p. 94.

15
. Elie El-Hindy, interview with the author, Lebanon, June 5, 2013.

16
. Mudar Barakat, interview with the author, Damascus, November 15, 2013.

17
. Barr,
Line in the Sand
, p. 120.

18
. Michael Provence,
The Great Syrian Revolt and the Rise of Arab Nationalism
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005) p. 63.

19
. Ibid., p. 58.

20
. Ibid., pp. 81–83.

21
. Ibid., p. 42.

22
. Bisher Allisa, phone interview with the author, January 31, 2014.

23
. El-Hindy, interview with the author.

24
. Alison Pargeter,
The Muslim Brotherhood: From Opposition to Power
(London: Saqi Books, 2010), p. 21.

25
. El-Hindy, interview with the author.

26
. Eugene Rogan,
The Arabs: A History
(New York: Basic Books, 2011), p. 246.

27
. Barr,
Line in the Sand
, p. 245.

CHAPTER 4. WARS AND COUPS—THEN THE ASSADS ARRIVE: 1947–2011

1
. Joshua Landis, “Syria and the 1948 War in Palestine,” in
Rewriting the Palestine War: 1948 and the History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
, ed. Eugene Rogan and Avi Shlaim (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 178,
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/Syria_1948.htm
.

2
. Michael Oren,
Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2007), p. 525.

3
. Joel Perlmann, “The 1967 Census of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: A Digitized Version,” Levy Institute,
http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/1967_census/vol_1_intro_tab_d.pdf
. An Israeli census counted 954,378 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. Palestinian sources estimate there were two million.

4
. UN Security Council, “Text of UN Resolution 242, November 22, 1967,”
http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7D35E1F729DF491C85256EE700686136
.

5
. Taleb Ibrahim, interview with the author, Damascus, June 7, 2006.

6
. Mohammad Ali, interview with the author, Quneitra, Syria, June 16, 2006.

7
. CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), “Syria's Quneitra Hoax,” May 10, 2001,
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=49&x_context=3
.

8
. UN General Assembly,
Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories
(n.p.: UN General Assembly, November 29, 1974),
http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?docid=3b00f1c74
.

9
. US senator James Abourezk, e-mail interview with the author, October 17, 2013.

10
. Elie El-Hindy, interview with the author, Lebanon, June 5, 2013.

11
. Hugh Eakin and Alisa Roth, “Syria's Refugees: The Catastrophe,”
New York Review of Books
, October 10, 2013,
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/oct/10/syrias-refugees-catastrophe/
.

12
. Oren,
Power, Faith, and Fantasy
, p. 524.

13
. Associated Press, “PLO Leader Who Opposed Arafat Dies in Damascus,”
Times of Israel
, January 29, 2013,
http://www.timesofisrael.com/plo-leader-who-opposed-arafat-dies-in-damascus
.

14
. Sean McBride et al.,
Israel in Lebanon: Report of the International Commission to Enquire into Reported Violations of International Law by Israel during Its Invasion of Lebanon
(London: Ithaca Press, 1983).

15
. Oren,
Power, Faith, and Fantasy
, p. 553.

16
. Central Intelligence Agency, “Syria,” in
CIA World Factbook
,
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sy.html
. The CIA writes that Kurds make up 10 percent of the Syrian population, but many Kurds argue that the figure is closer to 15 percent.

17
. Alison Pargeter,
The Muslim Brotherhood: From Opposition to Power
(London: Saqi Books, 2010), p. 77.

18
. Ibid., pp. 77–78.

19
. Robert Fisk,
The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East
(New York: Alfred Knopf, 2005), p. 814. See also Robert Fisk,
Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon
(New York: Nation Books, 2002), pp. 181–87.

20
. Fisk,
Great War for Civilization
, p. 815.

21
. “George Bush Sr. on War and Peace,” On the Issues,
http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/George_Bush_Sr__War_+_Peace.htm
(accessed March 10, 2014).

22
. David W. Lesch,
Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 4.

23
. Tim Lister and Jamie Crawford, “Meet Syria's Wealthiest and Most Elusive Man,” CNN, March 7, 2012,
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/07/meet-syrias-wealthiest-and-most-elusive-man/
.

24
. Shaam News Network, “Protesters Burn Syriatel SIM Cards Owned by Rami Makhlouf,” May 21, 2011,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Y5q2HnmaY
.

25
. Hamad, interview with the author, Damascus, June 16, 2006.

26
. Anne Barnard, “Syrian Officials Sound a Conciliatory Note toward the Opposition,”
New York Times
, October 6, 2013,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/world/middleeast/syrian-officials-sound-a-conciliatory-note-toward-the-opposition.html
.

27
. Ayman Abdel Nour, interview with the author, Damascus, June 13, 2006.

28
. Bashar al-Assad, interview with the author, Damascus, June 14, 2006.

29
. Sheik Nawaf al-Basheer, interview with the author, Deir Ezzor, Syria, June 12, 2006.

30
. Canadian Government Publishing,
Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar
[Arar Commission],
http://www.sirc-csars.gc.ca/pdfs/cm_arar_rec-eng.pdf
.

31
. CBC News, “US Legislators Apologize to Maher Arar,” October 18, 2007,
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/u-s-legislators-apologize-to-maher-arar-1.680301
.

32
. Bashar al-Assad, interview with the author, Damascus, June 11, 2006.

33
. Marlise Simons, “Fifth Suspect Is Indicted in 2005 Killing of Ex-Lebanese Premier,”
New York Times
, October 10, 2013,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/world/middleeast/fifth-suspect-is-indicted-in-2005-killing-of-ex-lebanese-premier.html
.

34
. Basheer, interview with the author.

35
. “Damascus Declaration in English,” Syria Comment, November 1, 2005,
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/syriablog/2005/11/damascus-declaration-in-english.htm
.

36
. Basheer, interview with the author.

37
. Assad, interview with the author, June 14, 2006.

38
. Bobbi Nodell, “New Estimates Give Updated Count of Iraq War Deaths between 2003 and 2011,” University of Washington Health Sciences, October 15, 2013,
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/uow--neg101113.php
.

39
. Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Shannon Doocy, and Les Roberts, “Mortality after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: A Cross-Sectional Cluster Sample Survey,”
Lancet
368, no. 9545 (2006): 1421–28.

40
. Paul Post, “Taking up 4,486 Flags for Slain Soldiers, but Holding on to Their Memory,”
New York Times
, May 28, 2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/nyregion/removing-4486-flags-for-slain-soldiers-but-keeping-their-memory.html
.