Bassem Mroue

Read the latest stories and analysis from Bassem Mroue.

Kurdish people sit by the grave as they mourn their loved one, a Kurdish fighter, name not given, who was killed in the fighting with the militants of the Islamic State group in Kobani, Syria, and was buried at a cemetery in Suruc, on the Turkey-Syria border, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014. Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, and its surrounding areas, has been under assault by extremists of the Islamic State group since mid-September and is being defended by Kurdish fighters. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

National Security

Syrian Kurds press hundreds of young men into army

Bassem Mroue · October 15, 2014 2:51 pm

Hezbollah loses 8 fighters in Syria border battle

Bassem Mroue · October 6, 2014 12:50 pm

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, second left, prays during Eid al-Adha prayer at a mosque in Damascus, Syria, on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014. Assad has made a rare public appearance by attending prayers at a mosque in the capital, marking the beginning of the important Muslim holiday. (AP Photo/SANA)

National Security

Embattled Syrian president makes rare appearance

Bassem Mroue · October 4, 2014 6:13 pm

An elderly Kurdish woman looks around as Syrian refugees arrive at the Turkey-Syria border near Suruc, Turkey, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014 U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeted Islamic State fighters pressing their offensive against a Kurdish town near the Syrian-Turkish border on Tuesday in an attempt to halt the militants' advance, activists said. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

National Security

US-led airstrikes hit Islamic State near Turkey

Bassem Mroue · September 30, 2014 6:57 pm

Iran to help Lebanon army fight extremists

Bassem Mroue · September 30, 2014 10:24 am

In this Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014 photo provided by the U.S Air Force, an F-22A Raptor taxis in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility prior to strike operations in Syria. U.S. coalition-led warplanes struck Islamic State group militants near the northern Syrian town of Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, near the Turkish border for the first time Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014, activists and a Kurdish official said. The coalition, which began its aerial campaign against Islamic State fighters in Syria early Tuesday, aims to roll back and ultimately crush the extremist group, which has created a proto-state spanning the Syria-Iraq border. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force, Russ Scalf)

National Security

US-led planes strike fighters attacking Syria town

Bassem Mroue · September 27, 2014 5:54 pm

This Friday, Sept. 19, 2014 photo, provided by Edlib News Network (ENN), an anti-Bashar Assad activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows an anti-Syrian government protester holding a placard during a demonstration against the U.S.-led coalition airtstrikes, at the village of Kfar Derian, Idlib province, northern Syria. The U.S. is struggling to counter anger among the Syrian opposition, where many believe that the air campaign against extremists in the country is only helping President Bashar Assad and that Washington is coordinating with Damascus, despite American insistence it backs the rebel cause. (AP Photo/Edlib News Network ENN)

National Security

US struggles to blunt Syria rebel anger at strikes

Bassem Mroue · September 27, 2014 3:28 pm

FILE - In this April, 1975 file photo, Syria opens its fourth oil field at Jbeissah, 19 miles west of the Iraq Border. Activists say that U.S.-led airstrikes have targeted Syrian oil installations held by the militant Islamic State group, killing at least five people on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and two local activist collectives say the airstrikes hit refineries and oil fields in the eastern provinces of Deir el-Zour and Hassakeh.(AP Photo/Harry Koundakjian, File)

Syria, Iraq oil controlled by Islamic State group

Bassem Mroue · September 25, 2014 5:47 pm

FILE -- In this Aug. 4, 2014, file photo, Lebanese army reinforcements arrive to the outskirts of Arsal, a predominantly Sunni Muslim town near the Syrian border in eastern Lebanon. Lebanese security officials say attackers fired a rocket at an army patrol near the Syrian border, killing two soldiers and wounding many. The rocket hit Friday, Sept. 19, 2014 near the army patrol outside the border town of Arsal, an area of repeated clashes, the security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

Bomb kills 2 Lebanese soldiers near Syria border

Bassem Mroue · September 19, 2014 12:20 pm

FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014 file photo, Syrian Kurdish Peshmerga fighters stand guard at a refugee camp in Derike, Syria. Islamic State militiamen backed by tanks defiantly marched on in Syria, capturing 21 Kurdish villages even as the international community strains to assemble a coalition that might destroy them. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)

Militant gains illustrate plight of Syrian Kurds

Bassem Mroue · September 18, 2014 10:51 pm

In this photo taken Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014, displaced Syrians who fled their home in their country stand near tents that were burned by gunmen at a Syrian refugee camp in the village of Brital in the eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. Syrians like them are becoming victims of a wave of revenge attacks carried out after one of several Lebanese soldiers captured by militants from Syria in a cross-border raid was beheaded by jihadists earlier this month. The killing of the Shiite soldier by Sunni extremists has aggravated sectarian tensions in Lebanon, which is bitterly divided over the war in neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Syrians attacked in Lebanon after soldiers killed

Bassem Mroue · September 13, 2014 7:39 am

A relative of a missing Lebanese soldier who was kidnapped by Islamic State militants covers her head with the Lebanese army flag as she sits on the ground street during a demonstration to demand action to secure the captives' release, in front the Lebanese government building, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014. Lebanon's government is forming a crisis committee to handle the case of some two dozen members of the security forces held captive by Syrian militants amid escalating criticism over its response to the hostage affair. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese troops seize area by restive border town

Bassem Mroue · September 9, 2014 11:50 am