Global Conflict This Week: Atrocities Continue in Syria

Welcome to “Global Conflict This Week,” a series that highlights developments in conflicts across the world that you might have missed this week. Stay up to date on these conflicts and others with the online interactive, the Global Conflict Tracker, from the Center for Preventive Action (CPA).

Over One Hundred Poisoned in Gas Attack

Russia and the Syrian government accused rebel groups of a gas attack on November 24, which poisoned over one hundred people. Rebel officials denied possessing chemical weapons and accused the Syrian government of creating “a malicious charade” as an excuse to attack rebel-held towns. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will send a fact-finding mission to Aleppo to investigate.

Separately, recovery teams have reportedly exhumed over five hundred bodies from mass graves and are still discovering other graves in the city of Raqqa. The bodies are thought to have been buried towards the end of the campaign to capture Raqqa from the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Also this week, the head of a UN commission probing abuses in the Syrian war called on the Syrian regime to provide information it has on thousands of people who have been detained or gone missing since the start of the conflict.

More about the civil war in Syria »

India, Pakistan Announce “Peace Corridor” for Pilgrims

India and Pakistan started construction of a visa-free corridor between two Sikh religious sites on either side of their shared border. This corridor will link the final resting place of Sikhism’s founder in Pakistan to a Sikh holy shrine in India.

More about the conflict between India and Pakistan »

Four U.S. Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan; U.S. Strike Kills Civilians

A U.S. Army Ranger was wounded during a firefight in the Khash Rod district of Nimruz Province on November 24 and died after being airlifted to Helmand Province. Three U.S. soldiers were reported killed on November 27 in central Ghazni Province by a roadside bomb. On Wednesday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack targeting the compound of the British private security firm G4S in Kabul in which ten people were killed and nearly twenty wounded.

Separately, the UN mission in Afghanistan said at least twenty-three civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in a Tuesday air strike in southern Helmand Province. A U.S. military spokesperson said U.S. aircraft carried out the strike after Afghan forces came under Taliban fire.

More about the war in Afghanistan »