My column* this week in The National discusses the carnage in the Syrian coastal area of Banias over the weekend committed by pro-regime militias, probably led by a Turkish man called Mihraç Ural. Ural is known for activists in the area. He leads a militia, called the Syrian...

Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the leader of Al Qaeda franchise in Iraq, dropped a bombshell Monday by announcing that Syria’s Jabhat al-Nusrah and the Islamic State of Iraq were to be united under a new name “Islamic State in Iraq and Sham [Levant] (ISIS)” – which can also be called Al...

    Last week, Moaz Al-Khatib recorded a video in which he addressed Hizbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah in relation to the party’s involvement in Syria. Al-Khatib's speech was moving and powerful. But Al-Khatib seemed convinced that Nasrallah was a virtuous person who could...

 There seem to be some important developments with regard to the Syrian opposition and regional patronage over the past few days. Saudi Arabia appears to have taken over from Qatar in dealing with the Syrian opposition, as great powers begin to agree on general principles for a...