Karin Laub

Read the latest stories and analysis from Karin Laub.

In this Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, Syrian rebel bomb maker Abu Moawiya sits next to bombs as he waits for other rebels to transfer them to another location, at their post in Maaret Misreen, near Idlib, Syria. The new Syrian rebel chief, a defected army general who spent months in exile, says he has begun operating inside Syria to unite autonomous anti-regime militias for what he hopes will be the final push against President Bashar Assad. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

New Syria rebel chief describes clandestine life

Karin Laub · December 19, 2012 5:00 am

In this Monday, Dec. 17, 2012 photo, Syrian rebels attend a training session in Maaret Ikhwan, near Idlib, Syria. The training is part of an attempt to transform the rag-tag rebel groups into a disciplined fighting force. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In Syrian rebel training, motivation trumps skills

Karin Laub · December 18, 2012 5:34 pm

In this Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, photo, Syrians wait outside a bakery shop to buy beard in Maaret Misreen, near Idlib, Syria. The town is broke, relying on a slowing trickle of local donations. The rebels, a motley crew of laborers, mechanics and shopowners, have little experience in government. President Bashar Assad's troops still control the city of Idlib a few miles away, making area roads unsafe and keeping Maaret Misreen cut off from most of Syria. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

No water, power, cash: Syria rebels run broke town

Karin Laub · December 16, 2012 6:21 pm

In this Monday, Dec. 10, 2012 photo, a Syrian boy who fled his home with his family walks back to his tent, next to laundry hung on olive trees, at a camp for displaced Syrians, in the village of Atmeh, Syria. This tent camp sheltering some of the hundreds of thousands of Syrians uprooted by the country's brutal civil war has lost the race against winter: the ground under white tents is soaked in mud, rain water seeps into thin mattresses and volunteer doctors routinely run out of medicine for coughing, runny-nosed children. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Winter brings more troubles for displaced Syrians

Karin Laub · December 12, 2012 11:59 am

FILE - In this Friday Nov. 5, 2010, file photo, the leader of Hamas Khaled Mashaal addresses the crowd during a rally at the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, Syria, Hamasâ exiled supreme leader visits the Gaza Strip for the first time this weekend on a landmark trip to the sliver of land ruled by his Islamic militant movement. The visit signals growing regional acceptance of the once isolated Hamas and even grudging acquiescence by Israel in the wake of an eight-day battle last month that ended with a cease-fire between the bitter enemies. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi, File)

Hamas chief’s Gaza visit sign of regional embrace

Mohammed Daraghmeh, Karin Laub · December 6, 2012 9:26 pm

FILE - In this Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012 file photo, Israeli police headquarters is seen in the E-1 construction site near the West bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem. On Monday, Dec. 3, 2012 Three European nations summoned their Israeli ambassadors to denounce Israel's latest settlement construction push, deepening the rift between the Jewish state and European allies that has cracked open over the Palestinians' successful U.N. statehood bid. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

Palestinians: settlement expansion means 1 state

Karin Laub · December 4, 2012 10:34 pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrives at the United Nations Plaza Hotel, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012, in New York. The Palestinians predicted a historic U.N. vote recognizing their statehood this week, praising important new support from France on Tuesday and likely backing from other European nations seen as critical to enhancing their international standing. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Palestinians say UN bid is last-ditch peace effort

Karin Laub · November 28, 2012 5:00 am

ED'S NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Palestinian gunmen ride motorcycles as they drag the body of a man who was killed earlier Tuesday as a suspected collaborator with Israel, in Gaza City, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012. The man was one of six suspected collaborators who, according to witnesses, were killed in a main intersection by masked men who forced them to lie down in the street and shot them in the head. The Hamas military wing claimed responsibility. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Hamas kills suspected collaborators with Israel

Ian Deitch, Karin Laub · November 20, 2012 5:00 am

Smoke rises following an Israeli attack on smuggling tunnels on the border between Egypt and Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

Israel, Hamas trade fire and tough truce proposals

Karin Laub, Ibrahim Barzak · November 19, 2012 5:00 am

The mother of 10-month-old Palestinian infant Haneen Tafesh holds the dead body of her daughter prior to a funeral in Jabaliya, north Gaza, Friday, Nov. 16, 2012. According to hospital reports Tafesh died from wounds of an earlier Israeli strike. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Gaza kids at risk in crowded urban battle zone

Karin Laub · November 17, 2012 5:00 am

Palestinian mourners carry the body of Hamas' top military commander Ahmed Jabari, killed in an Israeli strike on Wednesday, during his funeral in Gaza City, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. Israel barraged the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and shelling Wednesday and killed the Hamas military chief in a targeted strike, launching a campaign aimed at stopping rocket attacks from Islamic militants. The assault killed 10 other Palestinians, including two children and seven militants. On Thursday, militant rockets fired into Israel killed three Israelis, raising the likelihood of a further escalation. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Hamas targets Tel Aviv as part of rocket barrage

Karin Laub, Ibrahim Barzak · November 15, 2012 5:00 am

Syrian regime opponent Mohiuddin Abdullah Alathighani attends the meeting of the General Assembly of the Syrian National Council in Doha, Qatar, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012. A plan to shake up Syria's widely criticized opposition leadership and forge a more representative team has won the backing of several key countries, the proposal's author said Sunday, even as other anti-regime groups pushed back against the idea. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

Divisions emerge at Syria opposition conference

Karin Laub · November 4, 2012 4:00 am