As counterintuitive as it may sound, ISIL will still be stronger than Al Qaeda in Syria even after the former is dislodged from Mosul and Raqqa. Many counterterrorism experts have argued in recent months that it is time to turn attention towards Syria’s Jabhat Fateh Al Sham, formerly known...

Frederic C. Hof is director of the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. He advised Hillary Clinton on Syria at the State Department in 2012. Some 70 months ago, unarmed, ordinary Syrians rose peacefully against a regime whose incompetence and corruption they had come...

The fall of Aleppo is a human catastrophe. It’s also a demonstration of the perils of choosing the middle course in a military conflict. Sometimes it’s possible to talk and fight at the same time. But in Syria, the U.S. decision to pursue a dual-track, halfway approach made the mayhem worse....

(The Guardian)- The fall of Aleppo will neither end the conflict nor bring more stability to the country. The continuing offensive by the Syrian regime to capture the rest of the eastern side of the city has led to the capture of about 75% of the rebel-held area. But the regime’s swift...