The Pentagon totally pinky-swears that this has nothing to do with Syria. It just happens to have sent 5,000 troops to neighboring Jordan to participate in a nine-day air defense, disaster relief and humanitarian assistance exercise, dubbed Eager Lion.   While the Pentagon says this...

A Russian defence ministry source has told Reuters he knew of no qualified Syrians trained by Moscow to use the S- 300 s, putting the completion of the anti-aircraft system in Syria at "six to 12 months from now ".   He added that the Israelis "likely have...

,  Friday, May 24, 2013 Smoke and fire rises after explosives were dropped by a Syrian government warplane in Yabroud near Damascus, Syria, Monday May 20, 2013. The Syrian regime claims there is no civil war in the country but that the army is fighting foreign-backed terrorists...

For analysts familiar with the politics of Syria, the country’s descent into chaos amounts to an all-too-predictable pattern. It also parallels what  Rami Makhlouf , a major regime figure and first cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, bluntly announced in an interview with...