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Rif Dimashq Offensive (November 2012–February 2013)
The Rif Dimashq offensive (November 2012–February 2013) refers to a rebel offensive during the Syrian Civil War in the Rif Dimashq Governorate (which surrounds Damascus) which started in November 2012, and a subsequent attempted Syrian Army counterattack in January 2013. Thomson Reuters described rebels as "ramping up attacks on Damascus" in late November and ''BBC News'' described the 29 November government counterattack as "an unprecedented offensive against rebel-held districts in the east of the city". Background In September 2012 during the Syrian civil war, rebels carried out bomb attacks against military institutions in Damascus, killing 40 to 60 people, including high-ranking government officials, while activists said that the Syrian Army, as well as other pro-Assad gunmen, killed 40 civilians near Damascus and 16 in Damascus itself. In October, rebels attacked governmental sites in Damascus, captured an air force base and shot down a military helicopter in the ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zahran Alloush
Zahran Alloush ( ar, زَهْرَانُ عَلُّوشٍ, Zahrān ʿAlūš, 1971 – 25 December 2015) was a Syrian Islamist leader active in the Syrian Civil War. He was the commander of Jaysh al-Islam (or Army of Islam), a major component of the Islamic Front, of which he was the military chief, and was described as one of the most powerful persons in rebel-held Syria. He was killed in a Russian/Syrian airstrike on 25 December 2015 and Essam al-Buwaydhani was named his successor as head of Jaysh al-Islam. Early life Zahran Alloush was born in Douma, Rif Dimashq, in 1971, and was married to three women. His father was Abdullah Alloush, a scholar and the previous director of Al Assad center for Quran studies in Damascus. He joined the faculty of law at Damascus University, and completed a master's degree in Shariah at the Islamic University of Madinah. The Syrian Intelligence Palestine Branch arrested him in 2009 on charges of weapons possession. He was released from Sednaya Pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harasta
Harasta ( ar, حرستا, Ḥarastā, syr, ܚܪܣܬܐ, Ḥarastā), also known as ''Harasta al-Basal'' or ''Hirista'', is a city and northeastern suburb of Damascus, Rif Dimashq, Syria. Harasta has an altitude of 702 meters. It has a population of 34,184 , making it the 43rd largest city per geographical entity in Syria. History During the Syrian Civil War, it was one of the earliest rebel-held cities in Syria (see Battle of Douma and Rif Dimashq clashes (November 2011–March 2012)). Before the war, Harasta had been home to the 104th and 105th Republican Guard regiments and has a high population of Alawites in the suburbs, although it was a site of several anti-government protests in 2011. Harasta was reported under rebel control by early 2012. In March 2012 and again on 21 October 2012 it was reported that Harasta was under heavy government shelling. On 25 October, the Syrian army fired heavy tank and rocket barrages, after rebels overran two army checkpoints on the edge of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The service maintains 50 foreign news bureaus with more than 250 correspondents around the world. Deborah Turness has been the CEO of news and current affairs since September 2022. In 2019, it was reported in an Ofcom report that the BBC spent £136m on news during the period April 2018 to March 2019. BBC News' domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, in Broadcasting House in central London. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in London. Through BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England and national news c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre. Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corporation's purchase of the British company Reuters Group in April 2008. It is majority-owned by The Woodbridge Company, a holding company for the Thomson family. History Thomson Corporation The forerunner of the Thomson company was founded by Roy Thomson in 1934 in Ontario, as the publisher of ''The Timmins Daily Press''. In 1953, Thomson acquired the ''Scotsman'' newspaper and moved to Scotland the following year. He consolidated his media position in Scotland in 1957, when he won the franchise for Scottish Television. In 1959, he bought the Kemsley Group, a purchase that eventually gave him control of the '' Sunday Times''. He separately acquired the ''Times'' in 1967. He moved into the airline business in 1965, when he acquired Britanni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rif Dimashq Governorate
Rif Dimashq Governorate ( ar, محافظة ريف دمشق, ', literally, the "Governorate of the Countryside of Damascus", Damascus Suburb) is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the southwestern part of the country. It borders the governorates of Quneitra, Daraa and al-Suwayda (comprising the historic Hauran region) in the southwest, Homs in the north, Lebanon in the west and Jordan in the south. The Governorate completely surrounds the city- governorate of Damascus and it has an area of 18,032 km² and a population of 2,273,074 (2004 census). The Governorate was a major site of fighting in the [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large national audience. Daily broadsheet editions are printed for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. Financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1933 and revived its health and reputation, work continued by his successors Katharine and Phil Graham (Meyer's daughter and son-in-law), who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post'' 1971 printing of the Pentagon Papers helped spur opposition to the Vietnam War. Subsequently, in the best-known episode in the newspaper's history, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American press's investigation into what became known as the Watergate scandal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republican Guard (Syria)
The Syrian Republican Guard ( ar, الْحَرَسُ الْجُمْهُورِيُّ, ''al-Ḥaras al-Jumhūriyy''), also known as the Presidential Guard, is an elite 25,000 man mechanized division, although it may actually approach corps size with around 60,000 guardsman. Its main purpose is to protect the capital, Damascus, from any foreign or domestic threats. The Guard was the only Syrian military unit allowed within the capital city before the civil war. History The Guard was formed in 1976 after the after the Syrian occupation of Lebanon to protect the increasingly unpopular president. Major-General Adnan Makhlouf commanded the Guard from 1976 until 1997. The Republican Guard is used mostly to protect top Syrian government officials from any external threats and to serve as a counter-weight to the other powerful Syrian Army formations near the capital, the 4th Mechanized Division, the 3rd Armoured Division, and the 14th Special Forces (Airborne) Division. Many members of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
4th Armoured Division (Syria)
The 4th Armoured Division ( ar, الفرقة الرابعة, al-Firqa ar-Rābiʿah) is an elite formation of the Syrian Army whose primary purpose is to defend the Syrian government from internal and external threats. History The division has its roots in the Defense Companies commanded by Rifaat al-Assad, younger brother of President Hafez al-Assad. After Rifaat was banished from Syria in 1984, the Defense Companies were reorganised into the 569th Armoured Division, and later into the 4th Armoured Division. The Division is regarded by some as the best trained and best equipped of the Syrian Army. The 4th Armoured Division, the Republican Guard, and Syria's secret police form the heart of the country's security forces. As a result, the Division is drawn mostly from members of the same Alawite group as the Assad family. About 80 percent of the division's soldiers and officers are Alawites and nearly 90 percent of them are career soldiers, in contrast to the conscripts who comprise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ahmed Jibril
Ahmed Jibril ( ar, أحمد جبريل; April 1937 – 7 July 2021) was a Palestinian militant, the founder and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC). During the Syrian Civil War, Jibril was a notable supporter of the Assad government and PFLP-GC members helped government forces to fight the Syrian opposition. However, after clashes with rebels in Yarmouk Camp in Damascus, the PFLP-GC suffered defections and was forced to withdraw from the camp, and Jibril fled the city. Early life Jibril was born in Yazur a town near Jaffa in Mandatory Palestine, in April 1937, to a Palestinian father and Syrian mother. Other sources indicate that he was born in 1935 in the city of Ramla. His family moved to Syria in 1948, where he was raised. He graduated from the Homs Military Academy and served in the Syrian army from 1956 until 1958, rising to the rank of captain before being expelled as a suspected Communist. In 1959 he founded the P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Issam Zahreddine
Issam Jad'aan Zahreddine ( ar, عِصَام جَدْعَان زَهْر الدِّين, ʿIṣām Jadʿān Zahr ad-Dīn, 9 September 1961 – 18 October 2017), also transliterated as Issam Zaher Eldin or Issam Zaher al-Deen, was a major general of the Syrian Republican Guard who played a major role in the Syrian Civil War, leading Syrian government forces on several fronts. His most prominent role was the leadership of the surrounded Syrian forces during the over three-year long Siege of Deir ez-Zor. On 18 October 2017, Zahreddine was killed by a land mine explosion during operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Saqr island in Deir ez-Zor. Background Zahreddine was born in the small rural village of Tarba in the As-Suwayda Governorate in 1961. A member of the Druze religious community, he was commissioned as an officer in the Airborne (Special Forces) Armoured units in 1982. Before that he served in the Baath Party's People's Militia (Popular Militia) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
