Syria's cholera outbreak has now spread to every one of the country's 14 provinces, with 24,000 suspected cases and more than 80 deaths since early September. Severe water shortages—exacerbated by war, politics, and climate change—have forced people to drink unsafe water and allowed cholera bacteria to spread in the extremely low Euphrates River. There are other dangerous impacts from what the UN calls an "already dire water crisis" that is likely to get worse: Pastures dry up, and farmers have to sell their livestock. Crop yields are low, prices go up, and more families are forced to skip meals.

Human Rights Watch on Oct. 24 reported that Turkish authorities arbitrarily arrested, detained and deported hundreds of Syrian refugee men and boys between February and July 2022. The report found that refugees are arrested in their homes, workplaces and on the street, then detained in harsh conditions, and forced over the border to Syria.

Yemen's nationwide truce expired on Oct. 2, as warring parties failed to agree on terms for a renewal. With each side blaming the other for the failure and negotiations ongoing to find common ground, there's concern that fighting will erupt once again on familiar front lines, especially in the central province of Marib and the southwestern city of Taiz. While the gunfire and shelling never completely stopped over the past six months—in some places it got worse—the truce did offer some real respite for Yemenis who have suffered through seven and a half years of war.

In Episode 139 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg marks the 10th anniversary of the 2012 Daraya massacre, in which the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad killed some 700 civilians while taking back the city from the secular pro-democratic revolutionary forces that had seized power there. These early Syrian revolutionaries were inspired by the grassroots-democratic vision of the anarchist thinker Omar Aziz, and the ethic of nonviolent resistance propounded by Jawdat Said, the "Syrian Gandhi." Daraya was re-taken by rebels later that year, but fell a second time in August 2016, putting an end to the experiment in parallel power and direct democracy. Most of the remaining inhabitants were evacuated to Idlib province in the north, which remained in rebel hands, and the model of parallel power survived there for another two years—before extremist factions linked to the Nusra Front began to take over. The November 2018 assassination of civil resistance leader Raed Fares was another turning point. The following year saw a popular uprising in idlib by the pro-democratic resistance against jihadist rule. But the legacy of Daraya, once the frontline of a peaceful revolution, is largely forgotten history, its true heroism betrayed by the world.

Satellite images show significant damage from an Aug. 25 Israeli air-strike on the Assad regime's main center for conventional and chemical weapons development. Nine buildings of the Scientific Studies & Research Center (SSRC) were destroyed or heavily damaged, and a military captain was reportedly killed. The attack came as Russia removed the S-300 air defense system that it had positioned near the complex. The site, near Masyaf in northwest Syria, is also reportedly a base for Iranian forces and Iran-supported militias. (EA Worldview)

Human rights organization the Syrian British Consortium on Aug. 25 published the findings of its investigation into the massacre of civilians by the Syrian government and allied forces in the town of Daraya a decade ago. The investigation found that in August 2012, government forces killed at least 700 people, including women and children, through indiscriminate shelling and mass executions.

The US on Aug. 24 carried out air-strikes against Iran-backed militias in Deir ez-Zor province of eastern Syria. The militias have been firing rockets on US positions, including the base at al-Tanf, which came under fire last week. US Central Command said in a statement: "Today's strikes were necessary to protect and defend US personnel." According to unconfirmed reports, the air-strikes targeted the Ayash Camp of the Fatimiyoun group of Afghan fighters. Claims are circulating that at least six Syrians and foreigners were killed. (EA Worldview)

Thousands of local residents held protests across the Turkish occupation zone in northern Syria on Aug. 12, to oppose calls by Ankara for "reconciliation" with the Bashar Assad dictatorship. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking to diplomats in Ankara the day before, said, "We have to somehow get the opposition and the regime to reconcile in Syria. Otherwise, there will be no lasting peace, we always say this." He also revealed that he met with the Syrian regime's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in October 2021 at the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Angry protests, under the slogan "We will not reconcile," were held in the towns of al-Bab, Afrin and Jarablus, as well as areas controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in neighboring Idlib governorate. In the town of Azaz, a Turkish flag was burned by protesters. (Syria Direct, AFP)